Mr. Pierre Moscovici:

I am just trying to convince and to develop the position. Members should enter into the discussion with an open approach. I do not say it is perfect or the end of the game but it is a proposal. It has advantages and benefits for the whole of the Union and for Ireland too. I will be open to proposals, to amendments and to improvements and I will listen to and take into account the remarks of the Irish Government and the Parliament. In the end it is they who will decide, not I.

People often think the Commission is the government of Europe and that there is a kind of diktat from Brussels. There is no diktat. There are proposals and we are not the government of Europe. We are the driving force for the general interest but it is the member states who decide, through the Council. In tax matters it is by unanimity so if Ireland does not want the CCCTB it will not happen. It must, however, look carefully and precisely at the new proposal to see how different it is from the previous and what the advantages could be, as well as what improvements can be made to it. I understand that there are worries and preoccupations about specific aspects. There will not be any harm to Irish tax sovereignty.