Environmental taxes in the European Union

In 2020, environmental tax revenue in the EU amounted to €299.9 billion, corresponding to 2.2% of GDP.

For the first COVID-19 crisis year of 2020, the majority of the countries reported significant decreases in energy taxes compared with 2019. The typical range of decrease was between 5% and 15%.

EU environmental taxes accounted for 5.4% of the revenue from taxes and social contributions in 2020. This share varied significantly across EU Member States. Slovenia (12.3%), Latvia (10.1%), Bulgaria (9.9%) and Greece (9.1%) recorded the largest shares in the EU, whereas Germany (4.1%), Slovakia (4.0%) and Luxembourg (3.5%) recorded the smallest shares.