Brussels, 24/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - At his hearing at the EP's economic and monetary affairs committee on 24 January, the Hungarian finance minister, György Matolcsy, who chairs the ECOFIN Council, unveiled the Hungarian Presidency's priorities for taxation (see separate article on other financial priorities), explaining that the aim was to reduce the gap between member states in this domain.
To this end, he set out a number of objectives - continuing discussions about taxing the financial industry at the high-level group to draw up guidelines in the process of reaching agreement at EU level; - agreeing to extend the scope of the savings tax directive within a short time frame (see EUROPE 10297); and - continuing work on fuel taxes at technical level. On the first point, in answer to a question from Udo Bullmann (S&D, Germany), Matolcsy said that various member states have already introduced taxes on banks and the Hungarian Presidency wants a harmonised EU system to be achieved. He said that in the current crisis, bank tax income should be used to consolidate state budgets and, in fat years, should feed funds to prevent crises from happening. A bank tax would need careful consideration and be introduced along with other measures (investment an aid for small business), he added. In response to Astrid Lulling (EPP, Luxembourg) who mentioned the concessions made by Luxembourg on savings tax and her preference for taxation at sources, also recommending to await the outcome of bilateral talks between specific member states and Switzerland and other countries in this domain, the Hungarian minister said he hoped political agreement would be reached on savings tax while pursuing the bilateral talks with various countries which dislike the idea (Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, Denmark, France, Sweden and others) with a view to reaching agreement by the end of June. He also mentioned the option of other taxes, such as on energy, financial activity, multinationals and business in general. (F.G./transl.fl)