Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-252"
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"en.20001004.11.3-252"2
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". – Mr President, I would say to Mr MacCormick that the Commission has no means of influencing the level of excise taxes for mineral oil products in Member States. I want to be clear and insist on this point, because, as I said in my answer in the first instance, the Commission has made several attempts to get Member States to agree to the harmonisation of excise taxes precisely to avoid distortions in trade which may arise as a result of the differences therein. Mr MacCormick will realise that these attempts by the Commission have been rejected by the Council. Therefore once again, the Commission has no instruments to get Member States to change the level of excise taxes. That is the first point that I would like to repeat and insist upon.
Secondly, as Mr MacCormick knows, where Member States favour by fiscal means a certain sector of industry, they thereby infringe the rules on state aid, in this case fiscal state aid which is akin to a subsidy. Mr MacCormick rightly strives for equality of treatment and equal and fair competition. If a particular sector or region is favoured through fiscal means then the laws of fair and equal competition are infringed and the Commission, in the form of my colleague Mr Monti, will take action.
Thirdly, Mr MacCormick will know that there are a certain number of derogations from the principle of certain and definite levels of excise taxes. These derogations stem from Article 8(4) of Directive 92/81 of the European Union and are approximately 100 in number. These derogations are called the 8(4) derogations.
At the moment, the Commission is looking at all these derogations and examining whether they should be prolonged and if so, for what length of time. In the course of this examination, the Commission will also answer the question of whether such derogations are an infringement of the Treaty rules on state aid, because obviously a derogation may border upon fiscal state aid and if there is an overlap, there may be a case for the Commission to take action.
Returning to the case in point, which had not yet come to my attention, I assume that the conditions under which large and small companies operate are connected with the excise taxes for the minerals oils that they use and as long as the excise taxes are similar or more or lessthe same for these various sectors of industry, there is not much scope for the Commission to intervene. I hope that I am clear in this. If I have not persuaded Mr MacCormick, I hope that I can do so perhaps after this meeting."@en1
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