New Study Calls For Direct EU Taxation

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, London

28 November 2002

A recent study - carried out by two officials in the cabinet of EU Budget Commissioner, Michaele Schreyer - has renewed calls for direct EU taxation, and has suggested that the topic should come under the remit of the European Convention.

The financing of the European Union was not included as a topic for negotiation in the Laeken declaration, which outlined the tasks of the European Convention. However, according to the report's authors, Thea Emmerling and Sabine van Ackere, considering the issue of direct EU taxation should become an important part of the Convention's work in rewriting EU treaties.

However, according to the EU Observer news service, the study stressed that the partial reorganisation of the funding process for the European Union should not increase the amount of tax paid by EU citizens.

The European Union is divided on the issue of direct European taxation, with member states such as the UK and Ireland firmly opposed to the possibility of tax harmonisation, whilst several of their counterparts in continental Europe are more open to the idea.

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