Ms Margrethe Vestager:

I do not want to disagree with the Senator but I swore on the treaty. I put my hand on the treaty in front of 37 judges to say I will protect the treaty. There are many things in the treaty, my work to control state aid but also the sovereign right of the member states to set their own tax rate. If that is to be changed it will be by unanimity in the Council. I swore that. I take it very seriously. I hope the committee can see that we keep things apart. State aid control is completely different from how a member state organises its tax system. I do not think this will change. I do not think we will become a tax union where we have the same corporate taxation everywhere. Maybe it is a good thing that there is still some competition on the tax side. I would appreciate, however, that businesses paid what the country decided, in the Irish case 12.5%, instead of far less for some selected companies.