Posted on 09/09/2004 2:51:32 PM PDT by Lukasz
Poland joined an outcry Thursday against a French proposal to cut structural funds for new European Union members that have tax rates below the EU average.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski, addressing an economic forum in Krynica, said: "One cannot accept the proposals aimed at fighting against so-called fiscal dumping."
"We should be able to benefit from structural funds, if not we will never be able to overcome the inequalities that exist on our continent," said the president of the largest country among the 10 that joined the EU in May.
"European leaders must renounce their egoism," he added in the opening debate of the three-day event.
Kwasniewski's comments added to opposition expressed by other EU member states and the European Commission to the proposal unveiled by French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday.
Sarkozy argued that if the new member countries were rich enough to lower taxes they should not seek structural aid funds from old member states.
Hungary on Thursday joined the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- all among the 10 countries that joined the EU on May 1 -- to criticize the Sarkozy plan.
"This is completely unacceptable and I am convinced that it will never be adopted by the EU," Hungarian Finance Minister Tibor Draskovics was quoted as saying in the Hungarian daily Vilaggazdasag.
"The corporate tax rules in the EU are the responsibility of national governments," he said.
"There is no proof that certain investors who leave France and transfer jobs to new member states are doing so because of lower corporate tax rates there," Draskovics added.
The issue is expected to be debated Friday when the 25 EU finance ministers meet for two-day informal talks in Scheveningen, the Netherlands.
The low corporate tax rates in several of the 10 new EU member countries has been a hot-button issue, with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac vowing in May to work together to harmonise tax rates in order to prevent what they see as fiscal dumping rates by new member states.
But tax harmonisation is opposed by other old EU members, especially Britain which is vehemently against alignment of tax rates.
Tens of billions of euros are available to EU members every year for development projects designed to alleviate economic differences between the bloc's regions.
Outgoing EU Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer said earlier this year that new members were not funding their tax advantages with EU funds, but warned them they would have to abide by the bloc's rules and raise matching funds for EU structural aid.
>It looks like this French-German domination in EU don’t work.
Not only that. France and Germany are I-R-R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T!!1!
I always thought that instead of joining the EU so soon, the Eastern European states should have had their own bloc, and then later if they wanted to join the rest of the EU, they could do with much more leverage than they have now. But it's good to see Poland standing up for herself against the Paris-Berlin axis.
I want to see the EU go down in flames and the Euro (which sounds like it should be a sub-compact car) with it. Hopefully without war, but whatever it takes.
I thought this was a Conservative forum?
Poland has no right to demand taxpayer's money from France and Germany.
Poles should forget their old Communist habits and start earning money by themselves.
Again, France has missed a good opportunity to shut up.
:)
If there's any money on the table, so why not take it? If Poland doesn't, so Greece, or Spain or whoever will take it.
This is not an old Communist habit, but part of an agreement - the accession treaty. And - you will probably agree - pacta sunt servanda.
Before us the same was with other, never communist countries that had joint the EU (Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal).
So - why are we supposed to be the suckers, who will refuse to accept the money (as the firts one ever)?
Would you, if it was given to you???
Poland sacrificed a hell of a lot and contributed much to the Allied victory in WWII. What did they get for it? Zip. Zilch. Nada. While the country that started the war got the benefits of the Marshall Plan, their first victim got 40 years of Soviet domination along with the rest of Eastern Europe.
I have trouble with this statement:
"We should be able to benefit from structural funds, if not we will never be able to overcome the inequalities that exist on our continent," said the president.
Do Poles really believe that only foreign aid can make you richer?
This is a dangerous socialist fallacy - development history of the every Third World country has proven it wrong.
Thanks, I am flattered...
hmmm, let's just say, one of Russia's close neighbours. :-)
Mongolia ?
Wow, I am impressed...
I wouldn't argue with such clever men. :-)
So how many camels do you have ? I'm sure that you are a chief of some tribe or at least some village, so you must have many camels.
I think you mistake me for someone else :-)))
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