Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-03-Speech-3-190"
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"en.20031203.15.3-190"2
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"Mr President, I should like to congratulate the rapporteur on the work she has done on this report. It is a very good one and, like the rest of my Group, I will be supporting it tomorrow. I should particularly like to thank Mrs Randzio-Plath for including a number of amendments which meet the concerns of the charity sector in the European Union and in the United Kingdom as well.
Charities face a lot of difficulties caused by the VAT system and the amendments relating to charities in the report, and indeed tabled by the PPE-DE Group, are essential in trying to mitigate those problems. There are other problems in relation to irrecoverable VAT which, sadly, we cannot solve with this report but are also very important. These issues are important to charities across the United Kingdom including places like Chipping Barnet, in my own constituency.
It is also vital that Parliament adopts the amendment to ensure that Member States can allow a reduced rate for repairs to listed buildings. That is crucial, particularly for churches in the United Kingdom, many of which are listed. In many cases, repairs to these churches are phenomenally expensive for parishioners. These churches are not just of religious significance: they also have a social and cultural purpose within the community. The burden of paying a full rate of VAT makes keeping them in repair that much more difficult, so I very much hope that Parliament and Council support reduced rates of VAT for those kinds of repairs to historical listed buildings.
It is also vital to preserve the existing zero rates in Member States. There is no reason why they should not be able to decide for themselves whether to levy the zero rates. I would strongly defend the United Kingdom's zero rates, particularly in relation to children's clothes and shoes. I see no reason why these should be abolished. They perform an important social function and my British Conservative colleagues and I steadfastly defend those zero rates and will continue to defend them."@en1
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