McCreevy calls for tax competition in EU

EU INTERNAL Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy yesterday stated his opposition to the European Commission’s move to consolidate and harmonise taxes.

He told a press conference in Brussels yesterday that he has not changed his views on the need for tax competition between states.

He told a tax conference in Ireland last week he would oppose any attempt to consolidate or harmonise taxes in the EU and warned that investors would take their money elsewhere if rates are too high.

Mr McCreevy announced a review of the supervisory approval process in an effort to remove obstacles to mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector.

“Given the fierce global competition that is emerging, we cannot afford to have 25 medium-sized markets made up of second-division champions. We want to ensure that we extract the still-to-be-realised benefits of scale that the European market of 450 million people can offer”, he said.

Obstacles identified by included a lack of integration of the internal market for financial products and the implications of diverging supervisory rules and practices for large cross-border financial groups.