Italy To Push For EU Treaty On Taxation

10 July 2003 In a move likely to alarm EU member states such as the United Kingdom and Ireland, Italian Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti - whose country has recently assumed the rotating EU presidency - on Tuesday announced plans to push for an Europe-wide taxation treaty.

According to reports in the UK media, Mr Tremonti revealed that the treaty would replace more than 200 current bilateral double taxation accords between member states, and described it as 'a symbol of the EU's ever greater integration'.

However, more controversially, the Italian Finance Minister also suggested that the proposed treaty could contain provisions dealing with: 'the standardisation of corporate tax rates'. The UK and Republic of Ireland have always fiercely opposed any possibility of the loss of sovereignty on issues of national taxation.

Mr Tremonti also suggested that the Italian Presidency's plans to launch major infrastructure programmes during its time as head of the EU should be viewed as compatible with the Growth and Stability Pact. Explaining that the idea was to obtain financing from the European Investment Bank, he announced that:

'This is not in any way watering down the pact. It has to be applied in an intelligent, flexible manner.'