Brussels, 23/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - Visibly decided to facilitate the adoption of its new proposal for a directive on the tax on savings by end-2002 (see EUROPE of 19 July, p.9), the European Commission has opted to base itself on a legal basis that avoids the co-decision procedure with Parliament. Against the opinion of its own legal services, the Commission has indeed confirmed that the directive will be based on Article 94 of the Treaty, which provides for the Council voting through unanimity and a "consultation of Parliament" for tax harmonisation, instead of Article 95 which provides for qualified majority in Council and a co-decision procedure with the EP. According to the Commission's legal services, if the new directive only provides for "an exchange of information" between Member States and no longer the harmonisation of levels of tax, Article 95 should have been used. Probably heated by, among other things, the dispute with Parliament over the directive on call for tender, the services of the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkesetein preferred to reject this argument. According to a tax expert, this position is legally difficult to defend in the sense that the Commission presented a draft regulation on 18 June on administrative cooperation in matters of VAT based on Article 95 of the Treaty.