ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION IN EU COUNTRIES AS A TOOL FOR IMPROVING EFFICIENCY OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Abstract

In the context of European integration processes, a detailed study of the European experience in environmental taxation is needed today in order to identify the possibility of improving the current domestic environmental tax system. The purpose of the article is to study foreign experience of environmental taxation and to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the European environmental tax system, as well as to substantiate the directions of improving the efficiency of domestic tax regulation. The research was carried out on the basis of the use of general scientific methods and techniques: statistical for environmental tax data, graphical analysis method used to visualize the results of the study, the method of forming tables to reflect the structure of environmental tax across the EU Member States, methods of economic analysis in determining the main indicators in macroeconomic terms; Microsoft Excel Application Pack applied. It has been found that in EU countries, environmental tax revenues are much higher than government spending on environmental measures, and the analysis of the effectiveness of environmental taxation shows that as environmental expenditures increase, the volume of environmental tax revenues increases, while emissions of pollutants decrease. It is proved that for the time being, for Ukraine, European indicators remain not only inaccessible but also reversed, since domestic environmental protection expenditures are several times higher than the amount of environmental tax revenues. In order to obtain comparable data on the effectiveness of EU and Ukraine environmental policy, the relationship between the rate of increase or fall in environmental protection costs and environmental tax has been analyzed in relation to the amount of pollutant emissions. It has been found that the EU Member States' environmental tax successfully fulfills regulatory and incentive functions and acts as a financing tool for environmental measures that ensures the effective implementation of environmental policy. It is proved that environmental taxation of EU member states not only acts as an effective instrument for financing environmental activities, but is also an instrument for improving the effectiveness of environmental policy implementation. It is established that the system of environmental taxation of Ukraine needs improvement, since the environmental tax is not fulfilling its function at the moment, and not only shows the low fiscal efficiency of the environmental tax of Ukraine, but also insufficiently paid attention to the collection of these taxes and environmental problems in general.