Mr. Pierre Moscovici:

No, but I am in charge now, and I am a member of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, ECOFIN, since 2012. Ireland can be proud how, with the solidarity of its partners, it emerged from the crisis stronger and as a champion of growth in Europe. We all, collectively, must learn lessons from what was done at that time, what has been successful and what did not work. The Stability and Growth Pact did not exist, as such, in 2008, and during the crisis we invented the tools to respond to that. Today I am confident that we have a much stronger capacity to respond to that.

I can only repeat that no one ever contested the corporate tax system, and no one can. I personally, as Commissioner for tax, do not contest it because tax sovereignty is a principle, and the means exists in the treaties, in addition to the unanimity rule, to have full control of that. It would not make sense for a Commissioner to attack that.

The Chairman asks us to listen to parliaments and to be fully conscious of their sovereignty. I am not sure I have succeeded today from listening to all of your, shall we say, special spirit or fighting spirit, but I would like you to also listen to the Commission. The only thing I would like us to do together is to take the proposal on the table as a proposal, and examine it with good faith. This committee should look for positives. We will listen to your preoccupations, worries and proposals. In the end, we will try to build a compromise, because there is no Europe without compromise. I am French. I have been in Ireland many times. I have been a Minister for seven years. I campaigned here in the 1990s for Europe, as European affairs Minister, a long time ago. I know how European this country is. However, I do not believe in a Europe which would set big and small member states in opposition. I always refused that kind of position. We need to find compromise. I am very comfortable with that because in tax matters there are no big and small member states. One member state, whether it is big or small, can block a proposal if it wishes. Again, this proposal will not exist against you or without you. My last call is for us to continue to talk. Let us examine the proposal and try to make it better, so that in the end it can be seen that it is a good proposal for Ireland and for Europe.