"Tonnage tax should be used only as intended"

It is the EU Commission's job to ensure the legitimacy of the tonnage tax scheme, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager tells ShippingWatch in a comment on the excessive use of maritime subsidy schemes.

Margrethe Vestager, EU's konkurrencekommissær — Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert

BY OLE ANDERSEN

Published: 12.10.17 at 10:09

An expansion of the favorable Danish tonnage tax scheme for drilling vessels and rigs in the North Sea has collapsed, and EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager now confirms that state subsidy schemes in shipping should only be used for the purposes for which they are expressly intended.

Other EU countries have also applied for approval of subsidy schemes for their maritime sectors, which according to the EU Commission challenges the scheme with proposals for non-shipping activities to benefit from the state subsidy scheme.