Brussels, 27/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - The lobby of European employers, UNICE, is calling on the European Parliament to ask the Commission to present fiscal measures to complete the European Company Statute, in anticipation of the debate, on 3 September at the plenary session in Strasbourg, on the Mayer Report, devoted to the regulation creating a "European Company Statute" (see EUROPE of Friday 29 June, p.12). and Menrad report, on worker consultation in European companies (see EUROPE of 23 June, p.6). In a letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, last week, UNICE President, Georges Jacobs, considered that "without appropriate accompanying fiscal measures, the European Company Statute is unlikely to make a difference, in practical terms, to the operation of pan-European companies. Its interest will therefore be limited". According to the President of UNICE, "it is essential that the European Parliament unambiguously calls on the Commission to present a proposal that would allow to achieve EU-wide consolidation of taxable results as soon as possible". "We would also welcome specific proposals to remove tax obstacles to the creation of a European Company Statute through mergers", he says in a press release.
Proposed by the Commission thirty years ago, the regulation on the European Company Statute was finally the subject of a political agreement at the Nice Summit after lengthy discussions on the rules for worker consultation. Applicable from 2004, it will enable companies operating in several Member States to set themselves up as companies under Community law by applying a single system of company management and the publication of financial information throughout the EU.