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Jong Groen cannot support the flight tax on which parent party Groen and the other coalition partners reached an agreement within the federal government at the beginning of this week. “The amounts proposed today are simply not worth mentioning,” write co-chairs Jordy Sabels and Paola Travella and political secretary Stien Buts in an opinion article on Knack.be on Sunday.
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Source: BELGIAN
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As part of the ‘mini-tax shift’, the federal government agreed on Tuesday that anyone who soon books a plane ticket to a destination less than 500 kilometers away will have to pay a tax of 10 euros. On longer flights, the tax is 2 or 4 euros depending on the destination.
The tax should make travelers think twice before booking a plane ticket, but Jong Groen questions that. “The tax has become one with the ‘huge price’ of 10 euros for flights within 500 kilometres, 2 euros for a longer distance within Europe, and 4 euros for flights outside Europe. It’s a flat tax to fuel the greenhouse, but with no real ecological motivation or goals attached to it.”
“Students who take a break during the lesson-free week can buy a coffee on board from Ryanair for 3 euros. The proposed flight tax to, say, Milan would only cost them 2 euros extra, they will not let it go,” says Groen’s youth department.
He makes a case for promoting and developing a European train network. Train journeys should become the norm for distances shorter than a thousand kilometres. A flight tax can also be a good measure, for example according to the ‘polluter pays’ principle. “But the amounts proposed today are simply not worth mentioning.” The youth section also advocates a kerosene tax.
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