The EU does not impose but proposes and tries to seek consensus, according to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
“We don’t impose. We propose and try to reach an agreement. We all agree that we need more financial integration to safeguard the euro. Now, if some parties do not agree, we need to reconsider,” he said when asked to what extent the EU wanted to impose domestic taxation on individual countries.
The proposal was blocked by Malta and several other countries during last week’s EU summit and reiterated by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday during a meeting with Mr Van Rompuy, who was in Malta on a whirl-wind visit.
“Although Malta agreed with more integration in certain economic and monetary aspects, it would never accept losing its control over taxation,” he told Mr Van Rompuy.
During the meeting, Dr Gonzi repeated Malta’s stand against a proposal to introduce an EU-wide financial transaction tax.
Replying to journalists’ questions, Mr Van Rompuy mentioned the proposal as an example on how no agreement had been reached on this when it needed unanimous approval to change taxation laws.
If member states continued to oppose it, another form of tax, not necessarily a financial tax, would have to be considered.
“Member states are now looking for an alternative... We are more flexible than most people think,” he said.
Mr Van Rompuy said the EU was combining short-term action to stabilise the market, medium-term action to strengthen jobs and long-term action to stabilise the bloc, adding that the latter was “urgent” for the EU.
Mr Van Rompuy presented EU leaders with a blueprint suggesting a long-term plan to have an economic, fiscal and monetary union.
He said the decision to set up a single supervisory mechanism for banks was a major breakthrough and eurozone leaders had asked the Council for results by the end of the year.
The agreement for growth and jobs, he said, had to be implemented immediately.
Dr Gonzi said that during his discussions with Mr Van Rompuy he reiterated Malta’s position on the pension reform and the way the island calculated the cost-of-living-adjustment.
On both issues, he said, there was national consensus not only between the political parties but also among the social partners.
Dr Gonzi said they discussed aspects of economic policy and how to take the European monetary union forward. These discussions, he said, would strengthen, and not weaken, the EU.
They also discussed irregular migration, developments in the Mediterranean and the challenges Malta was facing.
Malta, he said, continued to expect solidarity from other EU countries and help to address the illegal migration challenge.
During the joint press conference, Mr Van Rompuy expressed concern on the situation in Romania, especially with regard to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, “which are fundamental principles on which our union is based”.
He said he was in contact with the European Commission president and they would be writing to the Romanian President and Prime Minster on this issue.
There is a motion to impeach Romanian President Traian Basescu over allegations that he improperly assumed the powers of Prime Minister when he announced drastic austerity cuts in 2010.
The ruling centre-left Liberal Social Union coalition is acc-using Mr Basescu of violating the Constitution.
The power struggle is said to be one of Romania’s worst political crises since it emerged from dictatorship 20 years ago.