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Europe |
Politician proposes funding EU through tax on texts and emails |
2006-05-31 |
Consumers, businesses and even government departments could pay a special tax on emails and mobile phone text messages under a scheme floated by a centre-right French MEP to finance the EU. Alain Lamassoure, rapporteur of the European Parliament's budget committee, has suggested to all 25 EU national parliaments and governments that users pay a "tiny" tax of €0.15 (10p) on SMS text messages and €0.00001 on every email. "I have discussed this with national parliaments in Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland, Germany and France with varying responses," he said. "I have not met my UK counterparts so far but I had a written response from the House of Lords saying the idea was very interesting - and the House of Commons Treasury committee wrote back, saying: 'It is none of your business nor ours,'" he added with a laugh. Mr Lamassoure, a member of President Jacques Chirac's UMP party, has called a meeting with MPs and MEPs from all 25 member countries for June 21 when he hopes to persuade Laszlo Kovacs, the EU budget commissioner, of the merits of his concept. Calling it an element of "a fiscal system for the 21st century", he said: "Our idea is not to be revolutionary but to create a new system of our own resources without imposing new burdens on national budgets." |
Posted by:Fred |
#9 RUNNING OUT OF XEROX PAPER ARE WE - Yep, the way to save Utopia and the already over-taxed, over-burdened current system is more un-affordable taxes regulations, and bureaucracies to support said new tax!? |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-05-31 22:03 |
#8 Just wait till they find out that Vonage now includes free calls to Europe.... |
Posted by: Chang Ominesing2659 2006-05-31 15:31 |
#7 Hmmm... a stamp act. They should be careful. People have been known to revolt over such impositions... (*cough*) |
Posted by: Chinter Flarong9283 2006-05-31 10:52 |
#6 I bet you Alain has a degree in economics. |
Posted by: gromgoru 2006-05-31 10:35 |
#5 a "tiny" tax Isn't that the way they all begin? |
Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-31 06:34 |
#4 We might need to subsidise the Pike production industries so they have enough capacity to cope with all the EU heads to be placed on them. One pike, one bEUrocrat/ collectivist "NGO" member. We need a lot of pikes. |
Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-05-31 05:17 |
#3 Remember, it is no longer a 'constitution,' but 'basic law.....' Good Luck trying to sell that P.O.S. |
Posted by: USN Ret. 2006-05-31 00:40 |
#2 I'm sure this wiil improve their chances of getting that constitution passed. |
Posted by: DoDo 2006-05-31 00:26 |
#1 ICQ and Instant Messaging .... Idiots followed by stuff like totaly web page based token passing that lets you read the letter at its source without mailing it. Idiots |
Posted by: 3dc 2006-05-31 00:25 |