Mr. Philip Kermode:

Over many years, the Commission has expressed a view that rates are not an issue on which it wishes to pronounce, other than to say that in the discussions on the common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, it was clear the Commission’s proposal did not deal with rates, meaning the question of the setting of rates was a question for national jurisdictions. It is a different category from, for instance, that of value added tax where an argument about having a minimum rate was based on distortions created by cross-border shopping.