The European Commission President said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph the idea of an EU tax will be discussed in the autumn as part of a major rethink about of how European funding is collected. There will be "no taboos", with every radical option left on the table for discussion, he said. Mr Barroso said under the proposals, "EU and national VAT should appear as separate taxes on the invoices or receipts" every time consumers make a purchase, buy fuel or pay for an airline ticket. "We will come with our financial review and we will have debate without taboos," he said. Mr Barroso emphasised that proposals for the EU's "own resources", controlled by the commission and collected across Europe, will not mean a new tax burden but would earmark a ring-fenced percentage of existing consumer taxes for EU expenditure, set to be £121 billion next year. "I think we should have some way to address own resources, that does not necessarily mean speaking about new taxes for Europe," he said. Officials also hope that listing a new EU tax on receipts would make funding more "transparent" to the public. "The proposal reflects the nature of the EU as a Union of member States and citizens by clarifying the link between the taxpayer and the EU budget," said a senior official. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, suggested that the move would drive British voters further away from the EU. "He is really out of touch if he thinks it will popular to alert people to the fact they have just made a cash contribution to the EU every time they go shopping," he said. "Thank you, Mr Barroso." The Commission President is concerned that the current system of negotiating EU contributions from strained national budgets leads to resentment and a "who pays and who benefits" blame culture. "It always becomes a question of how much one pays and how much one receives, I think this has always been very divisive. I think we should consider the options for own resources," he said. Mr Barroso faces a battle over the plan for direct taxation to raise the EU's budget which will be resisted as an encroachment on the jealously guarded tax-raising powers of national treasuries. Commission officials have long argued for a fixed system of "own resources" to take the sting out of talks for seven year "financial perspectives", negotiations that begin in 2011 for the period 2014 to 2020. During talks, grudging national governments which pay almost three quarters of Brussels contributions from treasury coffers traditionally focus on costs rather than the strategy for EU spending. While VAT rates or fuel duties in member states would not increase, cash would be divided into two separate components, the national rate and the EU rate, directly going to Brussels.Jose Manuel Barroso:
plan for EU tax to appear on all receipts
All shopping and petrol station receipts in Britain could in future include the amount of VAT or fuel duty that goes directly to Brussels as an "EU tax", according to Jose Manuel Barroso.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
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