WRITTEN QUESTION E-2201/99 by José Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Al-Invest Programme.
C 303 E/34 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 24. 10. 2000 (2000/C 303 E/031) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2201/99 by JosØ Salafranca SÆnchez-Neyra (PPE-DE) to the Commission (29 November 1999) Subject: Al-Invest Programme The new phase of the Al-Invest Programme provides for the possibility of support for individual projects. What measures has the Commission taken to ensure that payments to users are processed more efficiently and that the rules governing implementation of the programme are respected? The new Commission proposal states that EUR 3 m has been set aside for the organisation of TIPS. Has the Commission carried out an assessment of TIPS? Can the Commission explain the added value of TIPS for European firms participating in the programme? Joint answer to Written Questions E-2198/99, E-2199/99, E-2200/99 and E-2201/99 given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission (7 January 2000) With regard to the conferences organised in 1999 and directly linked to Phase 2 of AL-Invest, there were meetings with European operators (February 1999), Latin American operators (June 1999), and both European and Latin American operators (October 1999, Connect, Barcelona). There was only one significant change to the timetable: Phase 2 was presented to the LAADC committee on 23 September 1999 instead of 14 October 1999. Some operators may have been taken by surprise by this. The change was made simply because it enabled the budget for Phase 2 to be financially committed from 1999 (instead of from the 2000 budget, as initially planned) and thereby obviated the need for a stop-gap between Phases 1 and 2 of AL-Invest. The Commission received the recommendations made at the 20 September meeting of the Spanish Coopecos in good time and will respond to them appropriately. The Commission can announce that it intends to maintain the AL-Invest technical secretariat as a service to operators until 2005. This is a factor in the programmeís stability. The Commission agrees that considerable delays took place in 1998. Nonetheless, at the end of 1998, the Commission responded by giving detailed information to the beneficiaries to help them to present their cases, adopting a simplified, standard contract and making sufficient human resources available to catch up with the backlog in payments. As a result, the backlog was cleared by early 1999 and there has been no delay in treating AL-Invest proposals since then. With regard to the losses suffered by the beneficiaries, the Commission would point out that as for any other project, payment of interest on delays may be made wherever there are good grounds. The Commission would point out that an arrangement for customised business counselling (ARIEL) will be put into practice. This arrangement will enable customised follow-up of business contacts with partners on the other side of the Atlantic over a period of around 18 months. The new arrangement is more proactive than the sectoral meetings which involve 20 businesses from one continent meeting 60 businesses from the other continent over three days. The Communityís contribution to the TIPS (Technological Information Promotion System) network totalled EUR 3 million for the period 1996-2000; for the period 2000-2004, the contribution will be EUR 2,4 million. The contribution to TIPS will end with that phase and will cover three years, decreasing each year. The Commission undertook a technical evaluation and a financial audit. In summary, this electronic South-South network covers the whole of Latin America. It offers a unique electronic network service, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises in the less developed countries. The emerging development of the Internet leads us to believe that Community support for TIPS will no longer be necessary in the long term. TIPS directly benefits Latin American businesses and 24. 10. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 303 E/35 indirectly benefits European businesses, which can apply for access to its electronic services and take advantage of the detailed information collected by TIPS on Latin American SMEs interested in international partnerships (10 000 are registered). The Latin American Parliament confirmed to the Commission, in a letter from its President, Mr Juan Adolfo Singer, dated 13 April 1999, that it attached great importance to TIPS. (2000/C 303 E/032) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2240/99 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission (1 December 1999) Subject: Tax wedge in each Member State Please indicate the tax wedge at 25 per cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent, 125 per cent, 150 per cent, 200 per cent, 250 per cent, 300 per cent, 350 per cent, 400 per cent and 500 per cent of median employeesí earnings in each Member State, state the level of median employeesí earnings and specify the components of the tax wedge in each case between the cost to the employer and the net amount received by the employee. Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission (20 January 2000) The Commission neither computes nor possesses data concerning tax wedges in each Member State in the detailed form requested. However, the Commission has calculated ex ante tax wedges and their detailed breakdown for some ad hoc representative case studies of employees. A first approximation to the concept and calculations of the tax wedge can be found in part III, Section 1, of the 1995 Employment in Europeí report (1), with a calculation of average and marginal tax rates, and in the annual publication Net earnings of employees in manufacturing industry in the EUí (2). More recently, further analysis of the tax wedge on labour and its components is presented in Study No 2, Section 2 of The EU Economy Review 1999í (3). In addition, in order to provide a unified framework to compare the heterogeneous taxation systems of different Member States and to measure the taxation of labour, the Commission calculates implicit tax rates. These rates are calculated by dividing the taxes on a specific activity or good by an appropriate corresponding tax base, from a macroeconomic point of view. The implicit tax rates are computed for consumption, labour and áother factors of productioní. The implicit tax rate on labour is defined as the total amount of taxes on employed labour divided by the compensation of employees. The denominator ácompensation of employeesí consists of gross wages and thus also the amounts paid as social insurance contributions and as wage taxes. A table illustrating the implicit tax rates on labour for the Member States from 1980 to 1997 is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliamentís Secretariat. The Commission regularly produces the publication Structures of the taxation systems in the European Unioní (4). This is a collection of annotated data on the evolution of the structure of the taxation system in the Community. (1) COM(95) 396 final. (2) http://www. cc. cec/eurostat/eudor-stat/mst3/en/11225/00000001. htm. (3) European Economy series No 69. (4) http://www. cc. cec/eurostat/eudor-stat/mst2/en/24248/00000001. htm