Brussels, 22/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday, without debate, the Ecofin Council approved renewal of the minimum standard VAT rate at its present 15% level, until 31 December 2005. The Fifteen also undertake to "make every effort to avoid widening the current span of 10 percentage points" that to date separates the standard VAT rates applied in the European Union, even if no ceiling has been officially adopted.
The European Commission thus plans to limit the difference between VAT rates in European Union Member States. It had nonetheless this time renounced proposing to the Fifteen that they establish a 25% maximum rate (the highest rate in force in the EU, applied in Denmark and Sweden) - a project that it had submitted to the Fifteen in 1998 only to be refused.
Consulted for opinion, the European Parliament had requested, in December, that the minimum rate of 15% should be renewed until end 2003, to avoid making the prospect of changing the VAT regime too distant. It was not heeded.