The European Union has reached a preliminary deal that could exempt long-haul flights from carbon taxes until 2016.

The measure has been agreed upon by the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the EU presidency, diplomatic sources are quoted as saying by Euractiv.

Current legislation, which obliges intercontinental flights to pay for their carbon emissions by buying allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System, has met fierce worldwide resistance from carriers, putting huge pressure on the EU to reverse taxation.

According to Euractiv's diplomatic sources, the draft envisages that the acting regime should be returned in 2017 if a global deal curbing aviation emissions cannot be agreed.

Environmentalists say that the EU has succumbed to pressure from states such as the US, India and China, which consider EU's carbon tax a breach of sovereignty.

In order to revert some part of the criticism, Brussels had suggested charging aircraft just for their emissions in EU airspace, but Germany, France and the UK, the leading EU countries, disagreed.

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