Brussels, 24/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee on Tuesday 23 January, László Kovács, the European taxation commissioner, said that the Commission planned shortly to adopt a proposal amending the directive on the taxation of energy products in order to include special measures for commercial diesel. He said that “an initiative was needed in this area to reduce the competition distortions which exist in the road transport sector”. He revealed the results of the Commission's impact study, which indicated that the legislative proposal would have “a positive impact on the environment” by reducing petrol pump tourism and increasing minimum levels of excise duty on commercial diesel. At the end of December, the Commission published the results of the public consultation exercise on the three ways the legislation it was recommending could develop (see EUROPE 9245 and 9333).
In his general survey of current European taxation matters, Mr Kovács announced that in the first quarter of 2007 a Green Paper would be published, preparing the ground for a European policy on “indirect taxation” in the “energy, transport and environment sectors”. He invited MEPs to take part in the international “Taxation and Sustainable Development” conference, on 19-20 March, which will consider the potential contribution of taxation to the environmental, economic and social objectives of sustainable development. This will be the first conference in an annual series on taxation.
Mr Kovács restated his concern over Germany's position with regard to value added tax (VAT), “linking agreement on the VAT package with the possibility of applying the reverse charge mechanism on a national basis” (see EUROPE 9343). “For the moment, there is not really any support in the Council for these ideas,” he emphasised. At the request of the Council, the Commission will present a global strategy to combat tax fraud (see EUROPE 9316). Mr Kovács also said that the Commission would bring forward a proposal on “VAT on financial and insurance services” (see EUROPE 9326). With regard to reduced VAT levels, he said that the ongoing external study, ordered by the Council at the start of 2006 (see EUROPE 9123), on the impact of these levels on the operation of the internal market “should be available around Easter”.
The commissioner finally spoke of the Commission's intention to publish, in the first six months of this year, a second communication on the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), which would underline the progress made and identify the work still to be completed ahead of a legislative proposal by 2008. (mb)