03/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - Frits Bolkestein is right, harmonisation of corporation tax is not the way forward, declared CDU MEP Werner Langen in a press statement in which he was commenting on the reaction of the European Commissioner in charge of taxation to the proposals from the respective German and French ministers of finance, Hans Eichel and Nicolsas Sarkosy, to create common tax bands for companies with, if possible, minimum rates (EUROPE 29 May p 8). Noting that corporation tax rates were below 20% in several of the new Member States, whereas in Germany it is 37% and 35% in France, Langen declared that seeking to import German and French weaknesses into the whole of Europe was certainly not the solution.