It is a pleasure for me to present here today a virtually unanimous draft opinion of the European Parliament on two often very controversial topics: tax policy and pensions. This illustrates the urgency of this dossier. Two aspects that are very topical at the moment in the European Union are the ageing population and labour mobility. It also illustrates that the report is broad-based. I was appointed rapporteur for this topic more than a year ago. The Commission notification had not been published at the time. We were waiting for a directive proposal and were initially very critical because you, Commissioner Bolkestein, presented nothing but a notification. Moreover, it took a very long time, until April of this year, before it was published. As it happens, we as Parliament are now late ourselves with the plenary discussion of my report, also late in the day, but that is purely for reasons of scheduling. Meanwhile, the report has already had its effect in part. The ECOFIN Council of 16 October decided to take a pro-active approach based on my recommendations. This has culminated in the automatic exchange of data and support in the collection thereof. The first success has therefore been achieved. It is, in fact, rather apt for the report not to feature on the agenda until now. Indeed, it can enjoy the benefits of being discussed immediately prior to the Laeken Summit, to take place next Friday and Saturday. For this Summit also has the topic of pensions on the agenda. A joint report is scheduled for this Summit which has recently been adopted in the Social Council and the ECOFIN Council by order of the European Councils of Stockholm and Gothenburg and which concerns the social quality, the modernisation and financial sustainability of pensions. The Ministers have committed to starting a process of open coordination; Member States will be presenting reports before September of next year, and at the spring summit in 2003, more detailed policy on this subject matter will be outlined in the European Union. As you can see, in my report on the fiscal treatment of pensions, I too have called for the introduction of open coordination process of this kind. The fiscal policy of Member States is closely intertwined with Member State policy on the content and qualitative aspects of pension schemes. Indeed, the fiscal incentive to accumulating a pension and fiscal levies on pension payments are conditioned by requirements based on the view of Member States of what a sound pension scheme is, and the conclusion in my report is not by any means that we should simply put these requirements to one side to make way for opening the pensions market within the European Union, as some may be inclined to do. No, I would clearly draw a distinction between two different situations. The first situation concerns migrant workers who are allowed to take their pension schemes with them to another Member State on the basis of earlier directives. The Member State is to give these schemes the same fiscal treatment unconditionally, and the Commission is to be active in bringing matters before the European Court, and that receives my full support. The alternative situation is that all workers, including those who simply remain in their own countries to live and work, should be eligible for tax deductions in respect of contributions to a foreign pension scheme. This should not be unlimited in my view. In this case, the national requirements and conditions still apply for now. However, precisely in order to grow towards an integrated pensions market, I would call for this process of open coordination. Since the criteria for fiscal incentives have everything to do with these quality requirements in terms of content, it seems right to link this process with what is about to be launched in Laeken. I would therefore like to give this thought to Mr Bolkestein and the Belgian Presidency to take with them to this Summit in Laeken. As far as I am concerned, you can also plug into the time schedule that was chosen there and take the 2003 spring summit as a point of reference instead of that of Barcelona, because the topic will not feature on the agenda there. Finally, I think I can make a brief reference to the recommendations of the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment and the Committee on Petitions. I would also like to thank the rapporteurs in these committees for their contributions, and I hope that this report can help stem the flow of complaints and petitions, to which the Committee on Petitions, in fact, makes explicit reference, for that is, after all, the reason why we do all this, of course, namely the EU citizens who look forward to a truly border-free and obstacle-free Europe in terms of the movement of capital and labour, and in terms of encouraging the effective accumulation of pensions and fair taxation at retirement age.

Political group: PSE