I really like the way the European Commission ‘works’.

First you get a Commissioner (in this case the tax-obsessed Pierre Moscovici) saying that he had taken up an initiative with the UK and Malta about how their yachting industry pays VAT.  Notice this is how he starts, a personal initiative without first really asking his plentiful staff to conduct a serious prior study of the idea or hunch in his mind or belly – shoot first, discuss later!

Next, he declares some of Malta’s practices as “suspect” - accused you already are!

Then he threatens to launch infringement procedures against Malta and his other victims that could translate into heavy financial sanctions.

Then he talks about the rules “being changed”.

You see he has not yet been able to find the time to really study the EU’s own first Green Paper (2006) on a common maritime policy. What’s this, a new EU ‘shoot first, ask the important questions later’ policy?