France drops plans to push tax harmonisation


French finance minister, Christine Lagarde: tax proposal "alive, but not kicking very much."
TAX PROPOSAL: FRANCE SAYS it is dropping plans to push forward with tax harmonisation under its European Union presidency, following Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, told the Financial Times that while the proposal for a common consolidated corporate tax base had not been abandoned altogether, Paris would no longer press other governments to back it over the next six months.

"It is on the agenda, but we are not pushing it," said Ms Lagarde in an interview. "It is alive, but not kicking very much."

The relegation of the tax base proposal - a long-standing French objective - is the first sign the Irish No vote is having a knock-on effect on the EU's policy agenda, particularly on those issues deemed to encroach on national sovereignty.

"The landscape has slightly modified because of good old Ireland," Ms Lagarde said, while insisting that "the imperatives are the same".

Irish Times Thursday 19/6/08 BEN HALL in Paris

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0619/1213810561773.html