Quote of the Week: The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit
that carries any reward - John Maynard Keynes
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ESBA WEEKLY of Friday 19 October 2001 - VOL 3 - N° 42
Headlines of WEEK 42:
- POSTAL SERVICES: Council position: full liberalisation by 2009 ?
- GOVERNANCE: EC launches: "Your voice in Europe"
- TRANSPORT: Road driving times and rest periods reviewed
- TAXATION: EC communication on company taxation out soon
- ENTERPRISE: Short public consultation on revision of SME definition
- UPCOMING EVENTS
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EU / POSTAL SERVICES
Luxembourg 15/10/2001: Council position: full liberalisation by 2009 ?
The EU's Council of Telecommunications Ministers adopted a common position
to further liberalise postal services, based on a compromise proposition
of the Belgium Presidency, and will now be submitted to the European
Parliament for a second reading (as defined under the co-decision
procedure). The adopted Council position tends to maintain the balance
between competition (through gradual and controlled liberalisation) and
ensuring the provision of the universal postal service.
The agreement states that Member States would have to open up to
competition gradually as from 2003 (>100 grams or costing more than three
times the price of a standard letter; and all outgoing cross-border mail
(unless universal service endangered) and as from 2006 (>50 grams or
costing more than two and a half times the price of a standard letter).
Based on a Commission impact study, the EC will propose either a further
step in the liberalisation or their total opening by 2009 (under the
co-decision procedure again).
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EU / GOVERNANCE
Brussels 16/10/2001: EC launches: "Your voice in Europe"
The European Commission has launched the multilingual website "Your Voice
in Europe" further to its plans of April 2001 to improve governance by
using better the Internet (see ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N 19). It also
organised a stakeholders meeting to further spread and explain the
project.
The webportal should enable citizens, consumers and businesses to give
input to new initiatives, give feedback on the application of existing
legislation, discuss the future of Europe or lodge complaints.
The Interactive Policy Making (IPM) initiative consists of three main
mechanisms:
- Collection of spontaneous feedback via existing intermediaries (based on
for example the already existing Business Feedback Mechanism, which will
be applied to all other EU policy areas and a wider range of
intermediaries);
- More rapid and structured consultations to new initiatives directly
addressed to the public or targeted groups; and
- Platform for online-discussions (chats, debates).
ESBA welcomes the IPM initiative and expresses the hope that all EU
consultations, discussions, feedback mechanisms and complaint procedures
(IPM based or not) will be included as soon as possible on this new site
in order to improve EU transparency and efficiency. Currently,
consultations, debates, chats, feedback mechanisms and complaint
procedures are still spread on multiple sites and pages, making it
practically impossible for citizens and businesses to be informed
properly.
More info:
http://www.europa.eu.int/yourvoice
http://ipmmarkt.homestead.com
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EU / TRANSPORT
Brussels 17/10/2001: Road driving times and rest periods reviewed
The European Commission has proposed, as announced in the White Paper on
European transport policy (see ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N 37), to simplify
and update existing legislation in the road transport sector.
The EC proposes adjusted maximum daily (9 hours, with exceptions) and
fortnightly (90/144) driving times, breaks and minimum daily (12 hours)
and weekly rest periods for all drivers of road haulage and passenger
transport. Furthermore, the proposed regulation wants to reduce the number
of exceptions possible (only small or light vehicles, vehicles used over
short distances or a clearly defined public interest), and seeks to
facilitate more efficient enforcement and monitoring of the legislation
(strengthening the provisions on employer liability, and penalise drivers
for offences committed in another Member State).
The directive will complement the directive on working hours of drivers
(driving and other activities), currently the subject of conciliation
procedure between the Council and European Parliament.
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2001/com2001_0573en01.pdf
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EU / TAXATION
Brussels 18/10/2001: EC communication on company taxation out soon
The European Commission has just finalised a major survey on company
taxation in the internal market (a review of effective tax rates). This
survey of over 500 pages will be made available to the public before the
end of October with a Communication on the same subject (a review of
obstacles and solutions for cross border activities). This was confirmed
by Commission civil servants earlier this week. Also Commissioner
Bolkestein addressed the issue recently and already gave some insights of
its content.
Identified tax obstacles faced by cross-border operating companies:
- Directives on dividends and mergers;
- Cross border loss relief;
- Transfer pricing;
- Double taxation conventions;
Aside the obstacles (only few mentioned here) and possible solutions, the
survey also examined options for a EU consolidated corporate tax (e.g.
home state taxation, a consolidated common base, a European Union company
income tax, a compulsory harmonised tax system).
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&do
c=SPEECH/01/470|0|RAPID&lg=EN
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EU / ENTERPRISE
Brussels 19/10/2001: Short public consultation on revision of SME
definition
Further to the informal consultation with few selected business
organisations, among which ESBA (see ESBA WEEKLY - Vol 3 - N 41), the
European Commission has launched a public consultation for all interested
parties on the proposed revised SME definition. Reactions can be provided
until the 9th of November 2001. The issue will also be discussed with all
business organisations during a consultation organised by DG Enterprise of
the EC on November 7 2001.
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/consultations/sme_definition/inde
x.htm
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Louvain-la-Neuve (B) 24&25/10/2001: SMEs Finance; Theme: risk management,
role public/private sector, attitude banking sector, revision of Basle
agreement, obstacles to award loans, action plan on venture capital
Info: http://www.kubla2001.be/uk/colloque/colloque.htm
Geneva (CH) 1-3/11/2001: Global Employment Forum; Theme: Employment, Info:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/geforum/program.htm
Brussels (B) 05/11/2001: The Security of European Energy Supply,
consequences for SMEs; Theme: Energy, SMEs. Info:
http://www.sme-union.org/activities/sme5november.htm
Brussels (B) 07/11/2001: Meeting between business organisations and the
EC, DG Enterprise; Theme: 2001 Best Procedure Report and revised proposal
for SME definition.
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The ESBA Weekly is now sent to an increasing amount of persons with a
direct interest in SMEs.
This bulletin is made in co-operation with LOGOS
(http://www.logos-eu.com).
