Germany insisted today that a European Union-wide levy supported by Finance Minister Hans Eichel would not usurp national tax systems nor increase citizens' overall tax burden.
It would not create a new source of income for the Union, Finance Ministry spokesman Mr Joerg Mueller said.
Mr Eichel was quoted today as backing calls for a supranational tax system to be levied across the European Union, a suggestion sure to trigger outcries in countries such as Britain and Denmark, with powerful Eurosceptic lobbies.
"But it's a long term question, what sort of form such a system would take," Mr Mueller said.
The Finance Minister's comments underlie a debate that has not yet intensively begun. Mr Eichel has said that any EU-wide tax is unlikely by 2004, when an intergovernmental conference is due on reforms to the EU, and that it should not cost taxpayers more than the existing way of paying into Brussels funds via national transfers.
Mr Mueller said an EU-wide system would not replace national tax systems."A European tax system could not be practically implemented if it replaced national taxes", he said.
Support for a European tax system, which Mr Eichel said would represent a powerful upgrading of the European Parliament, has come from European Commission President Romano Prodi and France's ruling Socialists.