Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-05-Speech-3-189"
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"en.20031105.15.3-189"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, to borrow from Hamlet, it is by no means just in the state of Denmark that there is something rotten with regard to car taxation. Many Member States still illegally tax removal vans, which impedes the movement of the workforce in the EU. Furthermore, however, when a car is sold for transfer to another Member State there are actually a good number of problems. Ten years ago the Court of Justice of the European Communities stated in the famous Nunes Tadeu case that in no single case may the tax levied on a car be more than the proportion that car tax makes up of the market price of a similar used car.
In Finland especially, and you will be well aware of this, Mr Bolkenstein, this has fallen on deaf ears. I myself brought an old Citroën van into Finland a few years ago and I paid EUR 17 000 – this was for bringing my own vehicle into one Member State from another. Later the Court of Justice called on Finland to amend its Act relating to motor vehicles tax at the start of this year. I just rang a certain Finnish person who brought a Mercedes, registered in 1995 and bought in Germany, into Finland. He paid EUR 7 000 for it in Germany and in Finland just a month ago he paid EUR 12 000 in tax. That means that in Finland you pay an additional EUR 12 000 on a car bought for EUR 7 000. This, moreover, is an eight year old Mercedes! This is how the internal market works in Europe. Mr Bolkenstein, we still have a lot of work to do regarding this matter before the people of Europe see that the EU actually works for the good of them, the private citizens of Europe.
In general I support the Commission’s basic position that registration and circulation tax should be reimbursed when a car is bought for transfer to another country. Furthermore, removal vans should not now be taxed more than the equivalent of the administrative costs incurred, although the situation in Finland, for example, is totally different. In the longer term we also have to say goodbye to registration tax. Only in this way can we guarantee that the internal market will function properly and that people can buy a car in the country they wish and vote with their feet. Only in this way can consumers force the government in each country to change its ossified systems. Let circulation tax, however, be considered nationally, as it does not upset the functioning of the market.
I would furthermore like to say something about Mrs Honeyball’s report, which, in itself, is excellent. I disagree on the question of safety. We do, however, need safety-based tax concessions without delay. The annual European death toll of 40 000 is the indisputable reason for that.
Finally I would like to say that motoring is taxed much too highly in Europe compared to other forms of transport. The EU is certainly no tax haven but reasonable motoring costs should be permitted in Europe."@en1
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