Ok, lets not call it a tax, lets call it a lollipop

Alain Lamassoure, President ofthe Budget Committee of the European Parliament has been sounding off about the forthcoming EU budget which currently being debated,

According to Belga he has said that the institutional crisis of the past ten years has masked the deeper financial crisis at the heart of the EU.

l'eurodéputé français, les problèmes budgétaires ont été "masqués par la crise institutionnelle qu'a traversée l'UE entre le traité de Nice et le traité de Lisbonne". Ils n'en sont pas moins sérieux. Aujourd'hui, l'Europe "n'a plus le moyen de financer ses politique", estime-t-il. Le budget européen est en effet resté plafonné à environ 1% du PIB alors que les traités successifs ont considérablement élargi le champ d'action de l'Union. Par comparaison, "dans la plupart des pays européens, la dépense dépassent 40% du PIB".

He wants to see some way of leverageing money out ofthe nation states of the EU, but he warns,

"We are not closed to the reflection on own resources but it is clear that we can't have additional income for the EU, it must replace existing sources," a French diplomat told this website. "The second issue is that we can't increase the fiscal pressure on our citizens," they added.

One thing is clear however, says Mr Lamassoure. "It must not be called a 'European tax'. Once you mix the words 'Europe' and 'tax' in the same sentence it becomes explosive."

The problem is Alain, what else can you call it? No matter how many times you say we musn't call it an EU tax it still would be an EU tax.

And anyway, if you are such a true believer in the EU, and you believe that the people share your belief, surely they would be happy to fund your ambitions.

What you don't think so. No?

Then stop doing it then.

EU rules to increase costs of travels to Ireland

Oh that single market - why does it always round costs up?

THE cost of taking a flight both within Ireland and to a range of UK cities is set to increase by €8 per ticket.

The Sunday Independent has learned that the EU Commission issued a formal notice on March 18, informing the Government that its controversial Air Travel Tax (ATT) is being applied illegally.

That EU taxation proposal, a positive slant

Greg Henning, at the EU Weekly blog has taken a look at Commissioner Lewandowski's kite flying about EU taxation earlier in the week and has definitely come down on the side of it being a good thing (as has Jon Worth for that matter).

They seem to approve for a couple of reasons. In the case of Jon, he seems to think that by tieing taxation policies to European Elections this would increase turn out, and this increase the legitimacy of those elections. I am sure he is right, and in some way it would be no bad thing. Methinks that the vote for one small party would rocket at least in the UK, and its group in the Parliament would probably outgrow its current offices (indeed I declare an interest given that I work for that group).

Of course in the case of the UK, the fact that a clear majority of people would vote for parties that utterly reject direct EU taxes (and yes I know that they would be indirect to the individual, but they would be paid direct to the EU) would have interesting ramifications which Jon, as a European federalist would find distinctly distasteful, but as a democrat he would accept with a heavy heart.

Such a scenario would play to the Leninist notion of worse is better (though as an aside it appears he was mockingly quoting somebody else).

Anyhow back to Mr Henning he says, correctly in my view,

However, at a moment when austerity – re branded smart spending in France – is one of the favorite policy among EU countries, being able to reduce the EU budget line is a big psychological plus; the sort of thing some government would be delighted to announce. Of course, this wouldn’t really reduce the contribution from a country, it would just be paid directly and not via the government.

Where we disagree is as follows,

Such a tax is a big step toward more Europe and a greater Union. But this is just the beginning. I would really appreciate taking this step, but that might not be enough. If one day I can choose between filling a French tax form or a European one, that would be so much great – but there are some progress to make in a lot of domains between we can get there.

He suggests it might not be enough, I cannot imagine what he is thinking of here, but it rather worries me. And he then posits the situation that one could choose to which jurisdiction the money goes to.

Oh, would that that be the case. The EU would wither on its own CAP funded vine. I cannot see anybody seriously choosing the EU as a recipient of their tax rather than their local national governments. It would be honest, Yes. It would be transparent, also Yes. But it would result in the almost simultaneous closing down of the EU.

Result.