Chancellor attacks EU’s wasteful regulation
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said last night that Britain would resist EU proposals for harmonised corporate tax and VAT rates.
Speaking to journalists at a meeting hosted by the Wall Street Journal, the Chancellor said: “We must resist the Commission’s proposals to harmonise rates of company taxation and VAT, and insist that mutual recognition is a better way of dealing with differences between member states than harmonisation.”
Mr Brown added he was ready to wage a war against “wasteful regulation.”
He questioned the necessity of the vast swathe of regulation now affecting Britain, which had emanated from the EU Commission in Brussels.
He told journalists: “In 2004 and 2005, we should wage a war against wasteful regulation and use the European Councils as summits that sweep aside unnecessary rules and red tape.
“Regulation should only be used where necessary and the regulatory burden reduced wherever possible.”
Mr Brown’s comments come ahead of the meeting of European Union finance ministers later this week.
He said he would be urging finance minister to join him in a European-wide push against regulation.
“In this new initiative – where I believe there is a willingness of member states to cooperate – I believe the two European Councils – the Dutch Presidency summit of December 2004 and the British Summit of December 2005 – should be summits that sweep aside wasteful regulation
“And in the next two years every proposed regulation should be put to the costs test, then the jobs test and then the ‘is it really necessary?’ test. Existing regulations should be put to the same tests.”
Separately, the UK may op-out of the EU constitution should differences between the 15 member states prove insurmountable, according to an unnamed official.
“Either the whole process will then fall into place, or it won’t work and we won’t have a treaty,” the official told The Scotsman.
