10/07/2008: "The Commission has fulfilled what it had promised us, but it is important to go further in helping families."
"It is good to see a happy ending to three years of work and continuous pressure on the responsible persons." This was the message today from José Ribeiro e Castro MEP and Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassioutou MEP, after receiving the Commission's official information on its proposal to change the Directive 2006/112/EC of the Council which will, among other things, solve the dispute on VAT rates for children's nappies.
The Intergroup of Family and Protection of Childhood, Presided by Mrs Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou and Mr Ribeiro e Castro, Vice-Chairman, has undertaken several initiatives aiming to show the public and the European Commission the unfairness of the different VAT rates on children's nappies.
"It is an absurd situation in that the Commission believes that adult incontinence protection can be subject to lower VAT rates but not children's nappies", reiterated Ribeiro e Castro and Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou. "This new proposal aims to correct this obvious anomaly."
Both parliamentarians agree that it is necessary to go further in the efforts not to penalise the inevitable expenditure made by families with children. "As we already proposed at European level a year ago, when celebrating the International Day of Family (15 May 2007), we believe that VAT rates should be lowered in child care products thus giving a positive sign to family and demography. The Commission's initiative is, in the Commission's own words, 'just a first step' addressing the 'urgent cases' and limited to 'technical drafting adaptations'", said the MEPs. "So, we are going to struggle for a more global review of this Directive. The Council has regrettably been quite late in giving the necessary guidance to this process of getting governments to treat families in a non-hostile way, especially where basic care for children is concerned. Governments should be accountable for this matter."
"We understand that the Commission cannot go further right now and it is crucially important that it can have the support of the 27 Member States for, at least, this limited package of technical adjustments. It would be positive that, within the legislative programme announced in 2008, the European Union, through the European Commission, might be able to effectively fulfil what it had publicly promised and announced on July 19 2006, in the framework of the requests for information to the European Commission sent to Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Portugal in the form of letters of formal notice to several Member States about their application of reduced VAT rates for children's nappies.
"It should also be taken into account the need to dissipate the doubts about reduced VAT rates on child car seats", as Ribeiro e Castro called to the Commission's attention some months ago.
"But it is incomprehensible that there is discrimination between the Member States in items such as children's clothing and shoes where the States apply different VAT rates. If the European Commission is about to solve the discrepancy between other areas (such as housing) it is incomprehensible that the difference is kept in Member States in such relevant products as children's clothing and shoes.
For further information:
Office of José Ribeiro e Castro MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845783
Office of Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845447
Notes to Editors:
The EPP-ED Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 288 Members from all 27 Member States.
"It is good to see a happy ending to three years of work and continuous pressure on the responsible persons." This was the message today from José Ribeiro e Castro MEP and Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassioutou MEP, after receiving the Commission's official information on its proposal to change the Directive 2006/112/EC of the Council which will, among other things, solve the dispute on VAT rates for children's nappies.
The Intergroup of Family and Protection of Childhood, Presided by Mrs Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou and Mr Ribeiro e Castro, Vice-Chairman, has undertaken several initiatives aiming to show the public and the European Commission the unfairness of the different VAT rates on children's nappies.
"It is an absurd situation in that the Commission believes that adult incontinence protection can be subject to lower VAT rates but not children's nappies", reiterated Ribeiro e Castro and Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou. "This new proposal aims to correct this obvious anomaly."
Both parliamentarians agree that it is necessary to go further in the efforts not to penalise the inevitable expenditure made by families with children. "As we already proposed at European level a year ago, when celebrating the International Day of Family (15 May 2007), we believe that VAT rates should be lowered in child care products thus giving a positive sign to family and demography. The Commission's initiative is, in the Commission's own words, 'just a first step' addressing the 'urgent cases' and limited to 'technical drafting adaptations'", said the MEPs. "So, we are going to struggle for a more global review of this Directive. The Council has regrettably been quite late in giving the necessary guidance to this process of getting governments to treat families in a non-hostile way, especially where basic care for children is concerned. Governments should be accountable for this matter."
"We understand that the Commission cannot go further right now and it is crucially important that it can have the support of the 27 Member States for, at least, this limited package of technical adjustments. It would be positive that, within the legislative programme announced in 2008, the European Union, through the European Commission, might be able to effectively fulfil what it had publicly promised and announced on July 19 2006, in the framework of the requests for information to the European Commission sent to Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Portugal in the form of letters of formal notice to several Member States about their application of reduced VAT rates for children's nappies.
"It should also be taken into account the need to dissipate the doubts about reduced VAT rates on child car seats", as Ribeiro e Castro called to the Commission's attention some months ago.
"But it is incomprehensible that there is discrimination between the Member States in items such as children's clothing and shoes where the States apply different VAT rates. If the European Commission is about to solve the discrepancy between other areas (such as housing) it is incomprehensible that the difference is kept in Member States in such relevant products as children's clothing and shoes.
For further information:
Office of José Ribeiro e Castro MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845783
Office of Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845447
Notes to Editors:
The EPP-ED Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 288 Members from all 27 Member States.
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