§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what areas of decision making in the EEC affecting his financial and taxation responsibilities will 591W now be subject to majority voting in the Council of Ministers in consequence of the agreement at Luxembourg on 2 and 3 December.
§ Mr. BrookeArticles 2(2) and (3) of the internal market text in the European Council conclusions provide that unanimity should be retained for all matters dealing with taxation.
Article 2(1) provides that measures under certain articles of the EEC treaty, which were previously decided by unanimity, should in future be decided by qualified majority. These articles include Article 57(2) (concerning the taking up and pursuit of activities of self-employed persons), which covers measures concerned with the protection of savings, in particular with the granting of credit and the exercise of the banking profession. They also include Article 70(1), which covers the progressive co-ordination of the exchange policies of member states in respect of the movement of capital between those states and third countries.
The new monetary articles do not provide for any qualified majority voting. Institutional changes resulting from further developments in the field of economic and monetary policy will require treaty amendment and thus the unanimous ratification of member states in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.
The treaty reform proposals are still subject to an overall reserve from Denmark and Italy.