Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-055"
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"en.20000119.2.3-055"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, firstly, I agree with my colleague, Mr Coelho, when he says that a small country can really take the Union forward to a significant extent during its presidential term. We witnessed this during the Finnish Presidency and I am sure that Portugal will also succeed in this work.
Perhaps the greatest challenge Finland left Portugal is finalising the tax package relating to the code of practice on tax. When Portugal first informed the Member States of the priorities for its presidency, after the Helsinki Summit towards the end of last year, I was quite disappointed with the way the tax package was spoken about, as if the effort to reach a compromise had already been abandoned. Last week in Parliament, the new chairman of Ecofin, Pina Moura, was showing a considerably tougher attitude and he restored my faith in the fact that, as with the previous country to hold the presidency, Finland, Portugal too considers it important to harmonise taxation in the Member States as set out in the tax package. It was also gratifying to hear that, in the future too, the tax package would be discussed as a whole.
This is not a hopeless case. In a resolution adopted at the Helsinki Summit, the Member States achieved consensus with regard to the principle that all the citizens of the Union should pay an appropriate rate of tax on the income from all their savings. This tax can actually be put into effect in many ways. It is also therefore essential to call attention to the various obligations to divulge information, thus ensuring fair and comprehensive taxation. I hope that the Council will appoint a high level working group on tax as soon as possible, as was referred to in Helsinki, and will continue from the point reached at Helsinki.
In addition to the tax package, pressure is growing for the creation of a harmonised energy tax system that has a neutral impact on the overall tax burden. For my own part, I warmly support this aim, as long as the reforms are undertaken without jeopardising European industrial competitiveness.
The third challenge with regard to taxation is connected with VAT. Our target is to switch to a definitive VAT system as soon as possible. I hope that this will also be kept in mind during the Portuguese term."@en1
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