Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-03-Speech-3-260"
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"en.20081203.20.3-260"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank the European Parliament and more especially the two rapporteurs, Mr García-Margallo y Marfil and Mr Staes, for the constructive reports they have presented on the delicate subject of the fight against VAT fraud within the European Union, in particular with regard to the Commission’s first concrete proposal in this field.
The third category comprises measures intended to strengthen tax authorities’ capabilities with regard to the levying and collection of taxes. These include, in particular, a measure that specifies the cases in which suppliers and customers making cross-border transactions are held jointly responsible for the payment of tax. This is no doubt intended to strengthen the legal framework governing cross-border tax collection.
Finally, they include a measure intended to establish shared responsibility between the Member States in order to protect overall tax revenues.
The Commission also notes that Parliament has demonstrated an ongoing concern to ensure the protection of the European Community’s financial interests, given that VAT fraud also has consequences for the European budget’s own resources.
I welcome the support given to the proposal for a regulation on mutual administrative assistance in the fight against fraud and, in particular, against VAT fraud.
The Commission also welcomes the request made by Parliament to the Council to continue negotiations on this proposal, which will provide a detailed framework enabling the Commission and the European Anti-Fraud Office to provide the Member States with operational support and information as part of their fight against VAT fraud.
The positive opinion expressed by Parliament in the draft report on the cutting of deadlines and the rapid progress of the work conducted on this issue within the Council bode well for the more far-reaching proposals that the Commission will adopt in the near future.
We are today at a turning point in the implementation of our strategy to combat VAT fraud. The three reports that are to be adopted by Parliament tomorrow contain a number of recommendations on the way in which to improve the fight against fraud and reflect your opinion on the first of what will be a long series of measures.
On 1 December, the Commission adopted a communication specifying the measures that it will present in the coming months, as well as an initial directive containing some of these measures. The envisaged proposals also respond to the concerns and recommendations expressed in the report by Mr Staes.
The measures that the Commission intends to adopt can be subdivided into three categories:
The first brings together measures intended to prevent VAT fraud. One of these consists in establishing minimum standards for registration and de-registration in national databases in order to improve the reliability and comparability of information contained therein.
Improvements to the procedure used to obtain electronic confirmation of operators’ VAT numbers and the corresponding names and addresses are also planned in order to guarantee greater legal certainty for suppliers.
Finally, the Commission is proposing to simplify the rules governing invoicing and to rationalise those concerning the chargeability of tax in order to guarantee its improved application, a move that will facilitate controls.
The second category relates to measures intended to improve the effectiveness of tax authorities with a view to detecting VAT fraud. The measure concerning the cutting of deadlines, which is dealt with in the two reports by Mr García-Margallo y Marfil, falls into this category. To improve the detection of fraud, it is also necessary to ensure that exemptions from VAT on imports are better monitored, as the Commission proposed last Monday, and to extend the scope of the information that Member States will have to make available to the tax authorities of the other Member States via automated access to their databases.
Finally, as you indicated, this category also includes the creation of a European network, known as Eurofisc. The latter is intended to improve operational cooperation between the Member States in the fight against VAT fraud on the model of the Eurocanet network, which was set up by the Belgian tax authorities and which is supported by the Commission and the European Anti-Fraud Office."@en1
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