WRITTEN QUESTION E-3631/03 by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission. Consultation with charities with regard to the proposal relating to the imposition of VAT on postal services.
Date: 2003-12-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, Ireland, VAT rate, drafting of EU law, postal charges, postal service, tax harmonisation, voluntary organisation

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/617

(2004/C 78 E/0651)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3631/03

by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission

(5 December 2003)

Subject: Consultation with charities with regard to the proposal relating to the imposition of VAT on

postal services

As the Commission is aware, the proposal to impose VAT on postal services (1) will have serious financial
consequences for charities. What consultations did the Commission undertake with charitable organi-
sations, particularly those from Ireland, concerning the implications of this move prior to the publication
of its proposal in May 2003? How was the outcome of any such consultations taken into account in the
Commission’s final proposal?

(1) COM(2003) 234.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(28 January 2004)

The Commission was engaged in a long consultation process prior to making its proposal on postal
services. The Commission would like to assure the Honourable Member that charities, as well as other
customers of direct mail, were in fact consulted. Irish Charities were represented in that process. As early
as mid 2000, Commission officials were already discussing the effects of introducing VAT on the postal
sector with the European Committee on VAT (of which the Irish Cancer Society is a member), as well as
with many other groups and bodies representing postal consumers. As a result of those consultations, the
Commission included an optional reduced rate (which Ireland could set at 5 %) and widened the scope of
that option in order to include direct mail, something of interest to charities. The possibility given to
Member States of introducing a reduced rate together with the savings resulting from the right to deduct
for public postal operators, would broadly neutralise any increase in postal prices.

(2004/C 78 E/0652)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3632/03

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(5 December 2003)

Subject: Statements by André Sapir (adviser to the Commission President, Romano Prodi) concerning EU

cohesion policy

Voicing a commonplace view which appears to be shared by Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, André Sapir (an adviser to the Commission President, Romano
Prodi) recently stated in Barcelona that ‘cohesion has served its purpose but what we need now is growth’.
He even declared that cohesion policy should in future focus on the actual Member States and not on the
regions with the lowest per-capita income.

What are the impact and the significance of such statements made by a person who, in his capacity as
Mr Prodi’s adviser, dares to dismiss (describing it as ‘a political point of view’) the idea that the regions are
‘partners with a special role to play in the implementation of Community policies’? Who authorised him to
state that an ‘economic’ rather than a ‘political’ reason lies behind the idea of concentrating projects in the
Member States and gearing them to growth in the EU’s wealthiest and most industrialised regions, thereby
marginalising areas which would have plenty of development capacity if only the structural divides caused
by detrimental policies conducted by the EU and its Member States could be bridged?