Burkhard Balz MEP: "Anyone doing business in the EU has to obey European rules"

"To protect the Internal Market and to make sure that nobody plays foul we need consistent, rigorous and bold enforcement of competition rules. That's what Vestager does," said Burkhard Balz MEP, EPP Group Spokesman in the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, today. He welcomed the Competition Commissioner's ruling against Ireland's tax deals with Apple.

Balz insists that the same rules have to apply to all companies in the EU. "Anyone doing business in the European Union has to obey European rules," he said.

He is not, however, comfortable with the taxes clawed back from Apple flowing into the national budget. "I feel a strong discomfort about that. This is a weird way of encouraging countries to infringe competition rules. The money clawed back should flow into the EU budget instead."

The ultimate means for tackling the problem of tax evasion in the European Union is, for the EPP Group, the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). "This is the only way to combat the problem at its roots. We do not want to harmonise tax rates, but what is taxed and where it is taxed," Balz explained.