Members of a forum drawing up a draft constitution for the European Union called today for an end to a veto by member states on taxation issues, but Ireland and Britain reiterated strong opposition to any change.
The 105-member Convention on the Future of Europe is racingto complete its draft text for a summit of EU leaders in Greece on June 20-21.
"What is being proposed is tiny...It is minimal progress,"said French delegate Olivier Duhamel of a draft text prepared bythe 13-member presidium steering the work of the Convention.
Partly due to pressure, the text rules out theextension of qualified majority voting in the fiscal domain,even for tackling fraud and tax evasion.
Convention members said there should be at least someharmonisation of tax levels to avoid "fiscal dumping", ordistortions within the EU's single market.
"The presidium should have been a bit more ambitious," saidDutch government delegate Gijs de Vries, adding that he wantedqualified majority voting extended to environmental taxes.
But Ireland and Britain, which have lower corporate taxrates than many continental countries, ruled out any wateringdown of the principle of unanimity, saying taxation went to theheart of national sovereignty.
Britain also criticised the draft text's proposal thatmembers of the euro single currency get new powers to set theirown economic policy guidelines and police budget deficitswithout those countries still outside the eurozone.
The proposal would mean non-euro members such as Britainwould be shut out of key economic policy decisions. After EUenlargement next year, a majority of Union members will beoutside the eurozone.
"Dividing the "ins" and "outs" will weaken our ability totackle Europe's problems together," said Peter Hain, the Britishgovernment's representative on the Convention.
Britain is expected to announce next month that it is notyet ready to hold a long-delayed referendum on whether to jointhe euro. Sweden is holding a referendum in September. Denmarkis the third country outside the euro among current EU states.