16/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) is calling for the relaunch of negotiations for a pilot project that would allow SMEs to calculate their profits liable to tax according to the rules in the country of origin. On 11 March, the project was rejected by the unanimity of a technical group. This decision was not to the taste of the Secretary General of the UEAPME, Hans-Werner Müller. He declared that it was not acceptable that, "bureaucrats can reject an initiative capable of removing a barrier to the expansion of trans-national SME activities". According to Müller, the project should be on the EU finance ministers' agenda. The issue is at the heart of the debate on harmonisation of the corporate tax band, sought by Germany and France. These two countries, however, opposed the Commission's pilot project.