§ Mr. WhittingdaleTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what date the current proposal for the introduction of a European-wide withholding tax was first raised at a meeting of a Council of Ministers. [84575]
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§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 18 May 1999]: The Commission's current proposal for a Directive was made on 20 May 1998, following a period of discussions initiated by the Commission at the Verona informal ECOFIN in April 1996. It is a revised version of an earlier draft Directive which was originally published in 1989 and still on the table when this Government came into office.