The Green Deal Goes Sour for the Clean Energy Sector in Great Britain

Abstract

Individual European country taxes have recently been tailored towards a policy that incentivizes clean energy alternatives in order to curb CO2 and other harmful emissions that contribute to the continent’s carbon footprint. Cutting against this established tax policy, the European Court of Justice surprisingly held in European Commission v. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that a national discount on Value-Added Tax (“VAT”) for energy-saving materials flouted European Union rules by misapplying two exemptions. This Case Commentary argues that the European Union has overstepped its boundaries as a supra-national entity when it sets the definition of “social policy” that is solely in the interpretive domain of a member state at the national level, which in this case is the United Kingdom.

Keywords: United Kingdom, VAT Tax, Green Deal, Tax Policy, Clean Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Industry, British Law, European Union

JEL Classification: K23, K33, K34