{"id":468900,"date":"2026-10-22T10:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T08:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/22\/tasse-sugli-extra-profitti-delle-compagnie-energetiche-per-lavvocato-generale-si-puo\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:23:37","slug":"eu-advocate-general-says-windfall-taxes-on-energy-companies-are-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/22\/eu-advocate-general-says-windfall-taxes-on-energy-companies-are-allowed\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Advocate General says windfall taxes on energy companies are allowed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Taxing energy companies\u2019 windfall profits is possible. The measure \u201cis consistent with EU law\u201d, provided that the tax regime is \u201ctemporary\u201d and exceptional in nature. This is the view of Advocate General Athanasios Rantos<\/strong>, in a legal opinion for the Court which, if upheld by the judges in Luxembourg, could pave the way for governments to tax companies, a measure being considered <\/a>to counter rising fuel and energy prices. <\/p>\n

The Advocate General’s interpretation of the law submitted to the Court of Justice is part of the dispute arising from the solidarity levy introduced at the EU level in the wake of price rises triggered by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The constitutional courts of Italy, Belgium and Ireland have challenged this decision. The Italian court wishes to know whether the taxation of windfall profits also extends to distribution companies; the Belgian court has doubts as to its compatibility with state aid rules; and the Irish court has concerns regarding the principle of proportionality.<\/p>\n

It is the Advocate General\u2019s view that Article 122(1) <\/a>of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU provides the legal basis for introducing taxes on windfall profits. The article in question provides that “the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may decide, in a spirit of solidarity between Member States, upon the measures appropriate to the economic situation, in particular if severe difficulties arise in the supply of certain products, notably in the area of energy.” <\/p>\n

Secondly, the judge argues, EU and national law \u201cdoes not prevent Member States, within the scope of
\ntheir fiscal competences, from extending the contribution to other entities<\/strong>, in particular those that have benefited from
\nwindfall energy profits due to the specificities of their energy market.\u201d This, however, \u201cprovided that the overall burden and objectives of
\nthe national measures remain equivalent to those of the EU regulation.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for the tax on windfall profits per se, this is a levy that \u201cdoes not call into question the right to property or the freedom to conduct a business<\/strong>\u201d and applies \u201conly to the exceptional revenues of (energy) companies\u201d, which they would not have received under normal circumstances.<\/p>\n

Based on these considerations, the Court of Justice of the EU will now have to rule. The Advocate General\u2019s opinions do not imply that the Court will confirm the structure, approach, and interpretation of the law<\/strong>. The Luxembourg judges could still overturn the Advocate General’s opinion. For now, however, it strengthens the political momentum behind moving ahead with such a measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Advocate General Athanasios Rantos, tax levies on companies\u2019 exceptional profits are consistent with the law, provided they are temporary and limited in scope. The Court of Justice of the European Union will now have to decide whether or not to uphold this legal interpretation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":468872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30800],"tags":[26442,26752,30151,26204,30198,36331,33394],"class_list":["post-468900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-court-of-justice-en","tag-imprese-en","tag-extraprofits-en","tag-cup-in","tag-attorney-general-en","tag-tasse-energia","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468901,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468900\/revisions\/468901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}