Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-198"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020313.8.3-198"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, in response to the doubts raised in the oral question by Mr Bouwman, I would like to stress the following on behalf of the Commission: firstly, in relation to the legal basis, we agree with the view of the President-in-Office of the Council; in our opinion, the appropriate legal basis is paragraph 4 of Article 63 of the EC Treaty. There is no need to read out its actual text, since the Presidency has already done so. We believe that the Khalil sentence, of October last year, raises the inadequacy of the legal basis of Article 51 (currently 42) and obliges us to reconsider that of the Decision proposed in 1997. Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, with the new provisions of Title 4, we believe that the appropriate legal basis is paragraph 4 of Article 63 of that Treaty, while bearing in mind that Article 308 of the Treaty can only be applied if there is no other legal basis.
You also ask for the Commission’s opinion on a series of parameters proposed by the Council, specifically parameters 6, 10 and 11, relating to agreements between countries, unemployment benefits and family benefits.
With regard to the first point, the Commission believes that parameter 6 is acceptable, since this possibility is laid down in the current Regulation. The Commission believes it positive that in the Regulation, unlike the current one, criteria are established to maintain these agreements, especially in cases which are more favourable to the person affected.
Secondly, with regard to unemployment benefits, the Commission regrets the lack of progress in relation to parameter 10, which does not provide any essential modification of the current provisions, above all because it does not offer any specific solution in the relation to the situation of border workers.
With regard to family benefits, parameter 11 does not correspond exactly to the Commission’s proposal, but, in any event, the Commission considers it positive that that parameter intends to guarantee the beneficiary the maximum amount of benefits. This parameter will improve the situation of pensioners and orphans in comparison with the Regulation, since these people will benefit from the same provisions applicable to the same category of family benefits as self-employed and salaried workers.
The relationship between taxation and social security is another of your questions. It is true that Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 refers to the coordination of social security systems in the Member States. There are no explicit rules for the coordination of these tax systems and this issue is largely resolved by the bilateral agreements on double taxation which have been reached by almost all the Member States. The agreements follow the model of the OECD, which means that, in most cases, the income from salaried work (and also freelance work) is only subject to the taxes of either the country in which the work is carried out or the country of residence. Therefore, if they are subject to the taxes of the Member State in which they work, that country has competence both in terms of taxation and in terms of social security.
The Court of Justice confirmed that, in the absence of harmonisation at Community level, the Member States have the competence to establish the criteria for allocation of fiscal competence in order to eliminate double taxation, but, in doing so, it is logical that they should respect the principles of Community legislation and, amongst others, that of the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of nationality.
My final comments relate to enlargement. Firstly, the negotiations with the candidate countries, as the Presidency has said, on Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, in its part relating to Chapter 2, have provisionally been concluded – or have been concluded – with all the countries apart from Estonia, and this Chapter 2 also includes the coordination of social security systems. However, the annexes are still under negotiation. It has been entrusted to the administrative Committee for the social security of migrant workers, which will shortly present to the Council’s working groups the results of its debates on entries, which the candidate countries have asked to be included in those annexes.
Finally, Regulation (EEC) No 1481/71 will be applied to nationals of candidate countries as soon as they accede to the European Union, since there is no provision for a transitional period in the field of the coordination of social security systems."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples