Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-142"
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"en.20010116.8.2-142"2
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". – Mr President, I wish to begin by congratulating Mrs Oomen-Ruijten on her excellent report on the situation of frontier workers and, in particular, the social and fiscal problems these workers face. I should also like to thank Parliament for the support given to the Commission's proposal to extend the scope of Regulation 1408/71 to third-country nationals, the proposal to modernise and simplify that regulation, and for the encouraging support given to the Eures network.
The Commission is not sure that it would be appropriate to propose such a legislative instrument. It seems to the Commission more appropriate to stimulate cross-border cooperation of the partners involved in the different regions and at Community level in order to prevent any negative consequences of national legislation on frontier workers.
Finally, my comments on tax. Unlike social security, there is no Community legislation at all on personal taxation. Indeed Member States are extremely protective of their sovereignty in this area. That is particularly true of their competence to enter into bilateral tax treaties. Therefore, there is little chance of the Commission being able to secure successfully the adoption of measures by Member States, as requested in the report.
Unfortunately this will not change following the Treaty of Nice. As you are aware, contrary to our common wishes, the requirement of unanimity in Council was retained for tax matters.
Opinions are, moreover, likely to be divided about the merits of the recommendations made in the report concerning taxation in the State of employment. In fact, the prevailing view in tax administrations is that the State of residence rather than the State of employment is best placed to take account of the overall situation of taxpayers.
In conclusion, I wish to thank Mrs Oomen-Ruijten again for her stimulating report and to underline the Commission's determination to maintain its efforts to overcome the problems faced by frontier workers.
The Commission fully supports your concerns as regards the problems encountered by frontier workers. I therefore welcome your proposal to forward the resolution to the Council.
Allow me to now set out briefly the Commission's approach to the points raised in the resolution. First, on social security and the labour market, the report calls on the Commission, before the end of this year, to organise an international conference for the Member States and applicant countries concerning the position of frontier workers. This is an excellent idea and advantage can be taken of the experience accumulated under the Eures network. Such a conference could identify best practices and initiatives that could be launched both at Community and national level, and the European Parliament will be involved in its organisation.
On the idea of coordination provisions for supplementary pensions, I would remind you that the Commission has committed itself in its social policy agenda to propose in 2002 a directive on the transferability of supplementary pensions. This initiative will complement the already existing directive in this field, which was adopted in 1998. As the proposal will be based on Article 42 of the EC Treaty and rely on the codecision procedure for its adoption, Parliament will be fully involved. Furthermore I can confirm that a study covering the extent and nature of frontier work is already planned to be carried out under the Eures auspices in 2001.
On the initiatives taken by social security agencies for closer cross-border cooperation in order to facilitate access to health-care benefits, I am very much in favour of such initiatives and can confirm that it is the intention of the Commission to encourage such initiatives and to promote exchanges of experience and best practices. In fact the Commission is already giving support to such a project involving the inhabitants of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, which covers part of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
With regard to the follow-up of the Decker and Kohl judgments, there are important legal questions currently being debated in new cases before the Court. These questions concern hospital care and the Dutch health system. The Commission will await the outcome of these judgments before taking a position.
On obstacles to the mobility of stagiaires, students, volunteers and researchers, the Commission has already taken the initiative and presented a proposal for a recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on mobility within the Community for students, persons undergoing training, young volunteers, teachers and trainers. On 9 November 2000 the Education Council adopted its common position on this proposal.
I wish to thank Parliament for its support on this matter and I hope that the final discussions will enable Parliament and the Council to adopt the recommendations shortly.
On the idea of a proposal for a directive on the introduction of frontier effect reports, whereby Member States would be required to test their legislation as to the effects for frontier workers, I should make it clear that it is already the Commission's task to ensure that all provisions of national legislation are compatible with the Treaty and the secondary legislation of Community law. The Commission will certainly continue to use the powers laid down in Article 226 of the Treaty and to launch infringement proceedings against Member States when they violate Community law. However, I understand that the suggested proposal for a directive aims to provide for a more general socio-economic impact assessment of the consequences of national legislation, that is in itself compatible with Community law but might cause further difficulties to frontier workers."@en1
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