Mr. Paul Tang:

It helps within Europe, but we already see a type of tax competition that I call piracy. In my country, we steal tax base from Germany and France. That is what is happening in the Netherlands. There is no doubt about it. If there is to be competition it should be fair, and there should be a level playing field for all. This is nothing to do with fair competition. This will create fair competition and a level playing field within the EU.

It is right that this is not enough and we also need to come up to a global system. I absolutely agree with that. I know Ireland and the Netherlands on their own will not set a global standard for taxation. The only way we can set a global standard is through the European Union. That is one of the reasons when I think about the European Union, it is the future. This is the way we can still manage the global order. This is the first step; we have to set a European standard first to make it to a global standard later.

There is a flaw in the assessment by the European Commission. That is not due to the European Commission alone. We know pretty much the consequences of the proposal for Europe and the European Union as a whole but we do not know what they will be specifically for each member state. It is a flaw. In all fairness, the Commission is aware of that and cannot really correct it without co-operation from the member states. It needs the national tax administrations to see what are the consequences for firms and tax revenues. For every treasury in each country, this is a crucial issue. They need to know how much it will cost or bring in and it is not there yet. The European Parliament, with a proposal like this and especially when we think it is an important reform, needs to know the consequences. It would help very much if the Irish Parliament did not just point to the European Commission but rather to the Irish tax administration if it needs to know the consequences. There must be co-operation on the European level with the Irish tax administration and the same is true for the Netherlands and all the other countries if we are to find out the consequences. I absolutely agree that it is very unfortunate that we do not know them.