Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-293"
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"en.20011212.10.3-293"2
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".
Mr President, I should first of all like to take the opportunity, on behalf of the European Commission, of responding to what Mrs van den Burg and her fellow MEPs have put forward here this evening. Allow me to start by thanking Parliament for the unanimous support it has given via the van den Burg report to the Commission communication on the fiscal treatment of pensions. I have used the word ‘unanimous support’, as was also borne out this evening, not only from the words by the rapporteur, Mrs van den Burg, but also from the words by Mrs Thors, Mrs Kauppi, Mr Blokland, Mr Pronk and others. This is especially gratifying since this is a very important topic. There are three points which I should like to elucidate further, and these points are firstly, the subject of the open coordination, secondly, the pan-European funds and thirdly, the developments in the legal field.
Precious little has happened in this area over the past six months under the presidency that is about to come to an end. A circular letter, a questionnaire, has been distributed to the Member States. These questions have been received. Of course, work has been done on them, but that is all, really. I gather that the Spanish Presidency certainly intends to work on this with greater drive. Mr Karas, and the Members too, I believe, will agree with the Commission that such progress is extremely crucial and urgent on account of the demographic time bomb on which we are sitting, and I do not need to go into this topic any further. Everyone is familiar with it.
Mr President, in this matter of the fiscal treatment of pensions, I should once again like to thank your Parliament and all the speakers for their support they have given the Commission proposal, and I hope that we will be able to continue in the manner indicated as soon as possible.
The resolution is asking us to develop a process of open coordination, and I would like to say that, in principle, the Commission is in favour of more coordination in tax matters. An example of this is the working party which is being chaired by the British Minister, Mrs Primarollo. This working party is looking into the harmful tax competition, with very active involvement by the Commission. However, I should like to say to Mrs van den Burg that there is a subtle, yet important, difference between open coordination and coordination.
In principle, open coordination is applied to areas of policy which fall within the national scope. However, the resolution mentions the need
for tackling double taxation and double non-taxation, and this means, by definition, that there is a cross-border element that, by definition, is one of the aspects of the internal market. There is, therefore, probably little scope for a formal process of open coordination which, as already mentioned, relates to topics which fall within the decision-making remit of the national states. And this is not the case here.
Having said this, the ECOFIN Council of 16 October expressly approved the Commission proposal to take measures in order to tackle double taxation and double non-taxation. There is therefore very much a certain degree of coordination whereby the Commission retains the right, of course, to present further initiatives.
The second point concerned the pan-European pension funds, also mentioned by Mrs van den Burg and by Mr Pronk, I believe. In this field, the ECOFIN Council of 16 October did not subscribe to the proposal for pan-European funds. This does not mean in any way that the proposal has lost the Commission’s sympathy. On the other hand, I am perhaps slightly less enthusiastic about the suggestion made in the report and mentioned a moment ago by Mrs van den Burg, namely that the Commission would prepare a proposal for a statute of international pension funds. As I said just now, the ECOFIN Council was unable to endorse the proposal for pan-European funds, although these could function without new European legislation. Under these circumstances, I have strong doubts at to the proposal’s political chances of introducing pan-European funds by means of legislation.
Thirdly and finally, I should like to say a few words about the legal aspects. Last week, 6 December, the Court of Justice heard the Danner case, and this concerns, as I believe the Members are aware, a German citizen who emigrated to Finland and who wanted to continue with his German pension scheme, but unfortunately, the Finnish tax authorities refuse to grant him tax deductions on the contributions already made to the German scheme. During the hearing, the Commission supported Mr Danner and made reference to its communication on pensions. The verdict in this case can be expected next year.
Last month, a second case came to light. A Swedish court referred a case concerning the deductibility of contributions paid to a foreign pension insurance company by a permanent resident of Sweden to the Court of Justice, and this means that the correctness of the Commission’s legal analysis will be tested twice in the near future. Mr Pronk also emphasised that the Commission should keep its promise that it will take action against Member States that infringe the Treaty freedoms, and I should like to assure Mr Pronk, as well as other Members who have mentioned this, that the Commission is in active dialogue with the Member States. The Commission has formally asked the Member States for information about their national rules, and is currently looking into the responses it has received, and I can assure the Members of this Parliament that the Commission will start proceedings against Member States, where necessary. As the Commission has indicated in its communication on tax policy of May of this year, a pro-active strategy for infringement procedures forms an important component of its approach aimed at making headway in the field of taxation.
In a nutshell, with the help of this Parliament and also of the Council, a certain dynamic seems to have come about in the field of tax exemption for pensions. I should like to say by way of conclusion: let us try to hold on to this cooperation, and in that framework, I gladly accept Mrs van den Burg’s offer of further consultation.
Once again, I should like to extend warm thanks to Members for their excellent work and for the support for the Commission, and finally, I could perhaps say to Mr Karas that the Commission too is saddened by the fact that so little progress has been made on the work on the directive proposed by the Commission on pension funds."@en1
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