Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today drove home the point that tax policy must remain the sole domain of individual governments in the European Union.

Speaking after a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk, Dr Muscat said a number of themes of interest were discussed during the meeting.

“We spoke about governance issues in the euro zone and future regulations to be discussed in coming meetings. We made it clear that we want to see the euro zone grow, but we have to see it develop in respect of the treaties and taxes are to be decided by individual governments,” Dr Muscat said.

EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker is pushing for more harmonisation of tax policy in the EU.

"For tax harmonisation, the coordination and bringing together of tax policies is an absolute necessity. I will do it," Mr Juncker has pledged

Harmonisation of corporate tax bases is also favoured by a number of MEPs.

Speaking during a debate last year, European People’s Party President Manfred Weber noted that member states have made no efforts to harmonise their corporate tax bases.

“We need transparency on national rulings as well as harmonised tax bases,” he said.

 

Dr Muscat will be meeting Mr Juncker later today.