WRITTEN QUESTION P-0899/00 by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Taxation Policy Group.
C 46 E/72 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 13. 2. 2001 Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission (4 May 2000) Council Directive 95/53/EC of 25 October 1995 fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition (1) provides the legal basis concerning immediate notifications on infringements related to animal nutrition to the Commission either when irregularities are detected during checks at import and the irregularities lead to the rejection of a consignment, or when the procedure to settle problems between Member States is not sufficient to solve a problem and repeated irregularities are detected during checks at destination. Provisions for compulsory notification to the Commission in the event of a contamination of feeding stuffs are also laid down in Council Directive 1999/29/EC of 22 April 1999, on undesirable substances and products in animal nutrition (2). However, the obligation to notify only applies to situations involving more than one Member State. In addition Council Directive 90/425/EEC of 26 June 1990 concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market (3) requires Member States to notify immediately to the other Member Sates and to the Commission any disease or other cause likely to cause a serious hazard to animals or to human health in its territory. The circumstances for the notifications are therefore clear, albeit limited, legislation. in the existing Community Moreover, to complete and improve the current provisions, as scheduled in the white paper on food safety (4), the Commission adopted on 21 March 2000 a proposal (5) to amend Council Directive 95/53/EC and Council Directive 1999/29/EC. According to the proposal, information in case of an emergency related to products to be used in animal nutrition will be exchanged through the rapid alert system for food established under Council Directive 92/59/EC of 29 June 1992 on general product safety (6). In particular, Member States will be required to inform the Commission as soon as serious contamination or risk is detected and has spread to feed and the food chain or is likely to spread to other countries, and to provide this information in a harmonised form. In addition, Member States will also be required to inform the Commission when the frequency of a certain contamination or hazard increases. In the white paper on food safety, the Commission has also indicated its intention to present a proposal for an integrated rapid alert system covering both the feed and food sector, as a further improvement in line with the farm to table approach. (1) OJ L 265, 8. 11. 1995. (2) OJ L 115, 4. 5. 1999. (3) OJ L 224, 18. 8. 1990. (4) COM(1999) 719 final. (5) COM(2000) 162 final. (6) OJ L 228, 11. 8. 1992. (2001/C 46 E/076) WRITTEN QUESTION P-0899/00 by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission (16 March 2000) Subject: Taxation Policy Group 1. Could the Commission please indicate the remit and composition of the Taxation Policy Group? 2. What was discussed at the tenth meeting of the Taxation Policy Group held on 2 March 2000, what conclusions were drawn, and who attended this meeting? 13. 2. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 46 E/73 3. When were previous meetings of the Taxation Policy Group held, what was discussed at those meetings, and what conclusions were drawn? 4. What future meetings of the Taxation Policy Group have been scheduled, and what matters are due to be discussed at forthcoming meetings? In the interests of transparency, will the Commission provide Parliament with summary reports of 5. these meetings as well as any documents on which the discussions have been based? Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission (11 April 2000) The Taxation Policy Group is a group of personal representatives of the Ministers of Finance (two 1. respectively), who look at European taxation issues beyond the concrete proposals under discussion in the Council. The group enables the Commission and the Member States to take a strategic overview of taxation policies and to ensure the necessary links between taxation and other policies. The group is chaired by the Commissioner responsible for taxation. The group was set up following the Commission report of 22 October 1996 on the development of taxation systems in the European Union (1). In its report the Commission proposed that a more permanent and strategic high level group could provide a much needed overview of tax policy concerns, together with the necessary impulse to tackle major challenges. The endorsement by the European Council in Dublin on 13-14 December 1996 underlined Member Statesí commitment to this process of increased co-operation. The Taxation Policy Group is the successor of the High Level Group on Taxation which had been created following the Informal Ecofin Council in Verona in 1996. 2. The tenth meeting of the Taxation Policy Group was essentially devoted to a comprehensive discussion on a new strategy to improve the operation of the VAT system within the context of the internal market. This discussion was very constructive and helpful. However, the group did not agree on formal conclusions, as it never does. 3. The previous meetings of the Taxation Policy Group were held on 11 March 1997, 6 May 1997, 20 June 1997, 18 September 1997, 20 October 1997, 24 February 1998, 3 July 1998, 12 November 1998, 8 March 1999, and 2 March 2000. In the beginning, the work of the group very much focused on question of (harmful) tax competition and culminated in the adoption of the átax packageí by the Ecofin Council on 1 December 1997. Later meetings touched on a variety of issues, for example: monitoring economic and structural reform; the taxation of supplementary pension and life insurance; electronic commerce ü follow-up to the inter- ministerial conference in Ottawa on 7 October 1998; taxation of energy products; VAT and SLIM. The next meeting of the Taxation Policy Group will probably take place in early May 2000. It will be 4. devoted to an exchange of views on the review of the code of conduct on business taxation. 5. The basic idea of the Taxation Policy Group is to allow for an informal exchange of views between top officials from the Commission and Member States on important Community tax policy questions without the need to formulate an officially binding position. Therefore, there are neither official summary reports nor conclusions of the meetings. By the same token, it has been agreed by the group not to disclose the short working papers which are occasionally prepared for steering the discussion on specific points. The Commission would however be very pleased to keep the Parliament and more precisely its economic and monetary affairs committee regularly informed about the outcome of the meetings held by the Taxation Policy Group. (1) COM(96) 546 final