Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-26-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20070426.4.4-023"2
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".
Mr President, allow me just a few words.
Firstly, I wish to insist that the Commission considers relations between the EU and Switzerland to be very good. Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner had the opportunity to meet the President of the Helvetic Confederation on 3 April. They discussed these very good relations, which do not exclude some legal problems, which can be likened to those which exist among the EU Member States.
Every time the Commission considers that the Treaties or Community legal provisions are not fully respected, as guardian of the Treaties, it is obliged to react. This has been the case with the issue under discussion: the tax decisions adopted in some cantons of the Helvetic Confederation. It is not about tax competition. It is about the enforcement of the rules that were adopted in our Agreement with Switzerland of 1972. It is not about tax competition but state aid. The Commission very often opens this kind of procedure on the grounds of failure to enforce state aid rules in the Member States, and it is a very important issue.
I do not know whether you are aware that over 20 000 letter-box companies have been established in Switzerland with the sole purpose of avoiding taxation in the European Union Member States. We have been discussing this issue with the Swiss authorities since 2005. We have not found a solution other than to open this procedure. We are asking the Council for a mandate to negotiate with the Swiss authorities to reach a solution to this conflict. I hope that, in the coming weeks, the Council will give us this mandate with the backing of a very large majority of the Member States. I hope that during the negotiations, these issues, which constitute sizeable problems for thousands of European companies, will be resolved."@en1
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