§ Mr. HoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the outcome was of the ECOFIN Council held on 12 July; what the Government's stance was on each issue discussed, including its voting record; and if he will make a statement. [70624]
§ Dawn PrimaroloI attended the ECOFIN meeting on 12 July.
The Presidency introduced their work programme for ECOFIN. I and a number of other Ministers, stressed the importance of ECOFIN discussing the economic and budgetary aspects of enlargement.
ECOFIN then had an orientation debate on the Commission's Communication on company taxation "Towards an Internal Market without tax obstacles".
339WI stressed that we could consider some of the proposed targeted measures based on existing directive but could not accept harmonisation of the corporate tax base or rate. The Presidency asked the Commission to take forward further work, concentrating on the proposed short term targeted measures.
ECOFIN adopted conclusions on financial services, agreeing to extend the Lamfalussy procedures for securities legislation to the banking and insurance sectors. There will be further discussion of this at the October ECOFIN. ECOFIN agreed a mandate for an inter institutional monitoring group to report on the progress of the Lamfalussy procedures in the securities markets. The Council also noted a brief oral update from the Commission on implications of the current market situation for financial services.
The chairman of the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) gave an oral report to the Council, and presented two EPC papers on the relative merits of different pension systems. ECOFIN invited the Commission and the Economic Policy Committee to continue their work, focusing on the long term sustainability of pensions systems. There will be a joint Commission-Council report on pensions to the spring 2003 European Council.
The Commission made a short presentation to the Council on public finances in EMU.
ECOFIN noted the Commission's annual report on the protection of the Community's financial interests and the fight against fraud, and will discuss this again once the report has been considered by the relevant committees.
ECOFIN agreed conclusions on Council reform as a follow up to the Seville European Council, and on methods of evaluating output gaps.
No votes were taken at this meeting.