2.2

The European Economic and Social Committee has been consulted on a number of occasions since the end of the 1990s on proposals, recommendations and communications addressing this or related subjects. Below, it refers to its recent consultative and own-initiative opinions dealing with, inter alia, the concept of the ‘European company’ as applied to SMEs and the tax simplifications that are needed to quickly remove the obstacles faced by SMEs: — in an own-initiative opinion delivered in 2000 (1) on the European Charter for Small Companies, the EESC, as one of a dozen or so proposals, requested that: ‘The taxation system should be further simplified, and micro-businesses with a very small turnover should be exempted from excessive tax obligations’; — in an opinion issued in 2001 (2) on the Communication from the Commission on Tax policy in the European Union — Priorities for the years ahead, the EESC stated that it was ‘…generally supportive of the Commission's tax policy objectives particularly in the need to coordinate corporate taxes to eliminate difficulties particularly for SMEs arising from national variations’; — in 2002 the EESC delivered an own-initiative opinion (3) on a European Company Statute for SMEs which would enable SMEs to ‘… be treated on an equal footing with bigger companies … offer them a European label to facilitate their activities in the internal market,’ and ‘… remove the risk of multiple taxation, etc.’; — in its 2002 own-initiative opinion (4) on Direct company taxation, the EESC supported ‘… proposals aimed at speeding up measures to avoid double taxation ... establishing common principles to encourage an internal market where fair competition would prevail’ and stressed that ‘the objective of a harmonised tax base for all EU companies is compatible with the tax sovereignty of the EU's Member States and regions because it preserves their power to fix the level of tax’; — in 2003 the EESC issued an opinion (5) on the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 90/435/EEC of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation applicable in the case of parent companies and subsidiaries of different Member States in which it endorsed the Commission's efforts ‘aimed at eliminating, or at least reducing, the legal and economic double or multiple taxation of profits distributed by subsidiaries in the country in which the parent company is established’; — in an own-initiative opinion issued in 2003 (6) on Taxation in the European Union: common principles, convergence of tax laws and the possibility of qualified majority voting, the EESC called for three issues to be addressed, including the introduction of ‘a common company tax base ...’ and the use of ‘qualified majority voting to establish minimum levels for the corporate tax rate’; — in 2004, the EESC delivered an exploratory opinion (7), drawn up at the request of the Commission, on the Ability of SMEs and social economy enterprises to adapt to changes imposed by economic growth in which it reiterated the need ‘to reduce world trade barriers for SMEs and SEEs, especially excessive administrative burdens and legal obstacles’; — in 2004 the EESC issued an opinion (8) on the Communication from the Commission — An internal market without company tax obstacles — achievements, ongoing initiatives and remaining challenges in which it stressed: — in point 3.2, the need to eliminate distortions in the internal market by ‘consolidating the arrangements for corporate tax (…) for SMEs do not have the resources to cope with 15 (soon to be 25) different rules’ ; — in point 3.3, the ‘merit in the possibility of 'Home State Taxation' (HST) for SMEs perhaps with a turnover ceiling’; — in point 3.3.1, that ‘the Commission pilot project on 'Home State Taxation provides a solution for cross-border activities of SMEs, making their fiscal administrative burden lighter. A test of an HST system could start on a bilateral basis and could eventually be widened to the whole of the EU following a positive evaluation’; — in point 3.4, that ‘A common European tax base is an important first step’; — in point 3.7, that ‘The EESC is once again urging on Member States, the main influence, the need for an agreement which will allow and encourage SMEs especially to expand outside their home country and in the process create jobs, SMEs being the main creators of new jobs’.