French presidential candidate Voynet calls for Europe-wide green tax

French Green Party presidential candidate Dominique Voynet on Saturday called for the establishment of an ecological tax across the European Union.

Voynet said in a keynote speech to the European Green Party Congress that the EU, which has no tax-raising powers, needed to find a way out of underfunded European policies and budgetary disputes involving France and Britain.

"In short I think we should set in place a European fiscal policy, creating an ecological tax," she told delegates at the second annual gathering of green parties from 31 countries in Geneva.

"In that way we would not only enable the EU by additional financial means to really be able to work on its set goals, but also start to create a European spirit by subjecting all European companies and citizens to the same tax," she added.

Voynet, a supporter of the project for a European Constitution, said she now felt the French and Dutch rejection of the constitution in referendums last year was a "necessary halt" in building up the EU.

She described it as a wake-up call for "the European elite" who needed to respond with "new and clear objectives in order to show the citizens what we can do together".

"I think it is necessary to stop mourning the burial of the Constitional Treaty and draw a lesson from this public rejection," she said.

The 600 delegates at the European Green Party congress were due to vote on a common charter of principles and a new manifesto laying out an environmental roadmap for European governments.

European party president Philippe Lambert of Belgium said national Green Parties had to adapt to a changing political landscape after earlier successes.

"In 1999, the Greens were part of five governments in the EU. Now the Italian Greens are the only one of the family in government," he pointed out.

"However, ironically, Green priorities have never been so high on national and European agendas as today, as political parties have realised the importance of Green environmental and social policies," he added.