Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-03-Speech-3-259"
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"en.20081203.20.3-259"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, tax fraud and VAT fraud are punishable offences. They may be white-collar crimes, but they are crimes nevertheless, and are sometimes related to organised crime.
Finally, I also think that we should work much more closely together in the judicial field too. All existing judicial obstacles in national law for cross-border, criminal prosecution should be removed without delay. In my report, I have included a list of measures to be taken. I should like to receive a response, or reaction, from the Commission, and I regret that the Council is not present because, at the end of the day, it is the Council that will have to take action in this area.
What are the sums involved, because that always makes it interesting? In 2007, Commissioner Kovács estimated total fiscal fraud to be two to two and a half times the European budget, or a sum between EUR 200 and 250 billion. The share of VAT fraud in this is estimated at EUR 40 billion. All of this is probably a major underestimate, for the Court of Auditors estimated the loss of VAT income in 2005 to be EUR 17 billion in Germany and 18.2 billion in the United Kingdom, together responsible for just over EUR 35 billion of lost VAT revenue.
It is therefore to be welcomed that the Commission has funded a study, that this study is up and running, and that the results will be made public, so that we can see the true extent of the problem.
There are two basic problems where policy is concerned. First of all, cooperation between national tax authorities must improve and, secondly, we should really aim for shorter deadlines when the administrative bodies of the Member States gather and exchange information, so that things can be processed much more quickly.
My report mainly analyses the Court of Auditors’ inquiry into VAT fraud. The Court of Auditors checked in seven Member States: in France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. These countries cooperated well. Germany, though, refused all cooperation. In September, the Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Germany, something which, I have to say, Commissioner, I support.
The Court of Auditors has established that, in some Member States, the essential conditions for effective cooperation when it comes to controlling this form of fraud are completely lacking. My co-rapporteur pointed out that it takes longer than three months for requests for information to be dealt with. This is, in actual fact, inexcusable, because, in fact, these crimes should be combated in real time. The countries’ internal organisation has also come under fire, though. The Netherlands and Germany, in particular, leave something to be desired. Moreover, there is a total lack of sufficiently strong control mechanisms.
It remains a mystery to me why Member States refuse to take a firm stand, even though they know they miss out on billions of revenue. This is really beyond me. The free movement of criminals is a fact of life. A united Europe in the fight against tax fraud remains a pipe dream to a large extent.
There is also good news, though. My own Member State, Belgium, has set up the European Carousel Network (Eurocanet network) that guarantees a spontaneous exchange of information. This, too, is flawed, though, since only 24 Member States have lent their cooperation, and three of the major Member States, to wit Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, have refused to cooperate.
The Ecofin Council of 7 October has launched a new mechanism, namely the Eurofisc mechanism, to improve cooperation between the Member States in the control of VAT fraud. This is an initiative which, to my mind, is sound but will only add value if all Member States participate and if this is more than simply intergovernmental cooperation. I firmly believe that the Commission should be involved in this new initiative. It could in any event take part and even play a coordinating role."@en1
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