Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-13-Speech-3-171"
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"en.20001213.7.3-171"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I should like to address the question of the taxation of electronic services and to clarify the nature of the problem. When goods are traded electronically across borders, VAT is levied as a matter of course. When an item physically crosses the national border, unless that item can be transferred electronically, VAT is levied. The question arising here is whether VAT is levied when such items are the subject of a service which is provided electronically.
Even in these cases, we have many instances in which VAT is already levied. If the transaction takes place within the European Union between two Member States, VAT is levied. I am told that, when transactions are effected between states in the US, the applicable sales taxes are also levied in certain cases. The only instance in which no tax is levied is when the supplier is in a non-EU country and the recipient is in a Member State of the EU. There can be no doubt at all that this constitutes a distortion of competition, being detrimental both to retailers who, though they do not sell the same items, deal in similar products and to suppliers who offer the same sort of product from countries within the EU. Such distortion of competition cannot be tolerated in the long run, which is why I should like to say on behalf of my group that we endorse the proposals on this matter by the European Commission and by the rapporteur, Mr García-Margallo y Marfil.
In essence, it is only a question of finding a set of rules now so that these matters can be administered with as little red tape as possible. In this respect, the French proposal that registration be carried out in fifteen countries is surely not a suitable solution.
The second point on our agenda is the taxation of aviation fuel. Here too, I go along with the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy in principle. The taxation of aviation fuel is desirable for various reasons, but it is our firm belief that it can only be taxed on the basis of an international regime. If the European Union goes it alone, the result will be that flights from Frankfurt to the Costa del Sol, for example, will become considerably more expensive than flights from Frankfurt to Florida. That too is an unacceptable distortion of competition to the detriment of European operators. I therefore believe that efforts must be undertaken to create an international regime for the taxation of aviation fuel. My group and I take the view that unilateral European action would be unwise."@en1
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