Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-295"
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"en.20040310.9.3-295"2
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". – Under Article 93 of the Treaty, provisions concerning VAT must be adopted to the extent that harmonisation is necessary to ensure the establishment and the functioning of the internal market. Directive 97/67/EC was the first step towards the establishment of such a postal market. For the first time, consumers were given a choice and operators were free to provide their services outside their own small national markets.
As is often the case with European tax legislation, the VAT Directive has lagged behind and now requires urgent changes since it no longer reflects the needs or the situation in the Community. As they are currently being interpreted by many Member States, the current VAT arrangements are not compatible with the establishment of an internal market since they provide for the exemption of services provided by certain operators in their own market, their taxation once they dare to supply services in other Member States and the taxation of all other operators at the standard rate, wherever they happen to supply their services.
In the event of legislative inaction, there is a clear risk that the European Court of Justice will be called upon to resolve this apparent breach of the neutrality of the tax in order to re-establish a level playing field and ensure that internal market principles are respected. It could only do so by restricting the scope of the exemption to those services which are still not open to competition. That would mean taxation at the full rate for all other services.
The Commission, in presenting its proposal, is fulfilling its obligations under the Treaty, in particular under Article 93. It has done so after extensive consultation with universal postal services and other postal operators, as well as representatives of postal customers. It has taken into account their opinions, in particular those of private customers and charities by proposing that a reduced rate be applied to services such as letterpost, small packages and direct mail, which such customers use most. The combined effect of the savings to postal operators resulting from the right of deduction the proposal would open to them and the application of a reduced rate to a wide scope of postal services is intended to limit or neutralise any increase in postal prices.
The Commission was the proponent of the universal services concept at the heart of Directive 97/67/EC and considers that every citizen in the union has the right to a wide range of affordable, quality postal services. Universal postal service providers will not be in a position to provide such a service if they are discouraged from investing and modernising and as a result can no longer compete with other operators in the parts of the market which are already open to competition. The current VAT exemption makes the required investment more expensive. Universal postal operators in Europe recognise such challenges and accordingly most of them support the objectives of this proposal.
To conclude, I would invite Members of the House to support the Commission's proposal."@en1
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