EU Fails To Agree Majority Voting On Tax
In the early hours
of Monday morning it seemed that the EU was set to retain the
national veto on fiscal matters and social security, when a formula
for revised weights for the Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) process
was finally agreed. At one point during the weekend, disagreements
between the larger and smaller member states were so sharp that
the Commission's 'double majority' plan was revived in order to
break the deadlock (a majority of member states and of population),
but a revised French table of voting weights was presented on
Sunday night which gained eventual acceptance. Germany had been
expected to hold out for more votes than any other country, having
the largest population, but in the end gave in, so that Britain,
France, Germany and Italy - the biggest EU countries - now each
have 29 votes. The rules of the
EU summit are that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,
accounting for all those late nights: the leaders can't go home
until the dossiers are tied up in a bundle with pink ribbons.
The summit, whose overall aim is to prepare for enlargement, had
to set up voting weights for the prospective new entrants as well
as changing the current weights to be fairer towards countries
with larger populations, and for much of Sunday agreement proved
to be elusive. QMV is however to
be extended to a number of new areas, including trade in services,
although the French predictably refused to abandon the veto for
cultural affairs. Assuming that the
tax veto remains, as now seems highly probable, this is bad news
for the 'harmonising' tendency in the EU. The Finnish, who hold
the presidency for the next six months, have said that they will
vigorously pursue tax harmonisation, but there is little they
can achieve if unanimity is required. The summit can hardly
be called a success: although agreement has been reached on a
number of issues, including the latest version of 'variable geometry'
(allowing small groups of nations to make progress independently
of the remainder), the 'enhanced co-operation' procedure as it
is now called will be excluded from many contentious areas; and
on one of the most important issues, that of commissioners, who
are seen as national virility symbols, there was no agreement
on rotation - there will be one commissioner per state up to 27,
which effectively sidelines the issue for the foreseeable future. .
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