ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: TRENDS AND FEATURES

Abstract

Objective. The purpose of the article is to determine trends and features in the field of environmental taxation in the European Union. Methods. In the research process, the following general scientific methods and techniques of cognition were used: methods of scientific abstraction, analysis and synthesis (for the study of theoretical aspects of environmental taxation, determination of trends in the field of environmental taxation of the European Union), systematic generalization (for the classification of environmental taxes, determination of the principles of environmental taxation, features environmental taxation). Results. According to the results of the research, the essence and categories of environmental taxes in the countries of the European Union (energy, transport taxes, taxes on environmental pollution and resource use), the principles of their implementation, the impact of environmental taxation on achieving the goals of sustainable development, the advantages and disadvantages of environmental taxation, questions internalization of negative external effects of the environment. According to the results of the study, the trends of increasing total revenues from environmental taxes in the European Union during 2015-2021 (by 1.1 times), decreasing the share of environmental taxes in total tax revenues from 6.16% to 5.52% were established. The discrepancy in the receipt of environmental taxes by types of economic activity was determined (the largest share in the total amount of environmental taxes is energy (77.7%) and transport taxes (18.8%), the smallest share is taxes on pollution/use of resources (3.4%)). The need for a stricter application of the "polluter pays" principle, increasing the efficiency of environmental taxation due to measures to improve comprehensive planning, control and distribution of revenues from environmental taxes has been determined.