Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-342"
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"en.20050607.30.2-342"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, a large majority of my group should approve Mr Rosati’s report. I will not pretend, however, that the text voted for by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs does not bring up a considerable number of difficulties. The expression of divergent interests has resulted in a rather shaky overall construction that contains certain inconsistencies, or even contradictions. Once again, we have seen how sensitive tax matters still are in the European Union. That is why it would be desirable for us to deal with them in strict compliance with the principles that we constantly preach.
The aim of the Commission’s proposal is to move towards the creation of the internal market, to promote the free movement of goods subject to excise duty and, finally, to respond to consumers by enabling them to make their purchases where they see fit. Under these conditions, I am surprised at the proposals of some of my fellow Members which would lead to a situation contrary to this logic, even returning to the situation that existed prior to 1993.
All of that is surprising and even worrying, but let us return to issues of principle. The logic of the internal market very clearly requires the end consumer to pay excise duty in the Member State of acquisition for products intended for private consumption. The existence of indicative limits laying down the maximum quantity of goods that can be transported from one Member State to another has become too rigid an obstacle, which has led the Commission to propose that it should be scrapped. That is a good suggestion, which the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs has unfortunately only followed partially, as it agrees in principle to the abolition of the limits, but refers, in an amendment, to those same limits as if they still existed.
Another example of inconsistency is that consumers will in future no longer be obliged to transport the products themselves to benefit from the rule of paying excise duty in the country of acquisition. This, too, represents considerable progress.
For distance sales, in contrast, it is the rule of the destination country that will continue to apply. The problem is that the dividing line between the two cases is not always clear and that the differences in their treatment will, I am sure, lead to a number of practical difficulties.
These considerations led me to propose some amendments that aim to remove the distinction between on-site sales and distance sales, but the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs did not go with me. I withdrew, because I was told that people were not ready and that it would involve a revolution. Nevertheless, it would simply be a case of sticking to the logic of the internal market. When European integration is proving to be an extremely complicated business – which is the situation we are now in – we cannot continue to encourage these inconsistencies because the citizens of Europe will judge them very harshly."@en1
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