Brussels, 29/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Trade Union Federation (ETUC) sees as an "absolute priority" the introduction of qualified majority voting at the Council over fiscal matters, which is due to be introduced by the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on reforming the European Institutions. "After completing the internal market and introducing the Euro, taxation policy must also take on a European dimension", indicated an ETUC press release slamming "fiscal dumping" practices by EU Member States in recent years. "One of the consequences of such practices is that some Member States have had to raise taxes or other employment costs, which has created another obstacle in the job market", argue the trade unions.
The ETUC sees last week's agreement at Feira between EU Heads of State on savings tax as a "small step in the right direction". "The need for European action on companies' savings tax is no longer questioned (…) This is real progress, but the Code of Conduct on company taxation must be immediately deblocked". The ETUC went on, "If Feira showed that the political will to make progress exists, progress is still mortgaged by the current Treaty which provides for unanimity for all taxation decisions. The introduction of qualified majority voting on European level taxation, such as for savings and company tax and ecotaxes must become an absolute priority for the Nice Summit".