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Dear Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Taxpayers,
A warm welcome to the second Taxpayers Association's Award in Brussels.
Today’s prize-giving, which is deliberately being held in a modest but splendid setting, is intended to be a means of conferring distinction, but also a pointer for the direction down which the continued development of a common Europe must go.
The goals of the Taxpayers Association of Europe, which was founded back in 1969 in Luxembourg, are to lighten the burden of tax of the citizens of Europe, prevent the introduction of new taxes and struggle for simpler and fairer tax laws and against the wasting of public funds.
The wasting of public funds knows no frontiers, making it all the more important that we find comrades-in-arms throughout Europe. In the eye of the Taxpayers Association of Europe, public waste is as damaging to society as tax evasion. In both cases, damage is inflicted upon society and the nation. Both activities should be punished.
The Court of Auditors are the natural allies of the taxpayers’ organizations. I am happy to say that at both national and European level we are able to look back on good relations here over many years, and the annual reports from the Court of Auditors in the Member States and from the European Court of Auditors confirm us in our demands for the recognition of a legally defined crime of embezzlement and for an official prosecutor.
Dear former president of the Court of Auditors, Prof. Dr. Friedmann, I would like to thank you most cordially for your long and loyal collaboration. I would like to take this opportunity to greet you, your chef de cabinet Erich Haenelt and also your collegues Jean François Bernicot, Robert Charles Reynders and Dr. Hubert Weber.
Dear Prof. Friedmann,
You will certainly be pleased to learn that your speech given at the first Taxpayers Award Ceremony in 1999, entitled “Can Europe Get To Grips With Its Finances”, was a real stimulus in the battle against the wastage of EU resources.
I would like to extend my special welcome to - and who else - our speaker at the award ceremony today, former member of the European Parliament and International President of the Paneuropean Union,
I.H. Dr. Otto von Habsburg,
we are delighted that you are willing to give the ceremonial address for both our award-winning guests
Mart Laar and
Diemut R. Theato
whom I would like to welcome with all my heart.
Dear Dr. von Habsburg,
There isn’t a more appropriate laudator and speaker for our event than you. You are an experienced European, you have monitored and steered the history of our common Europe from the beginning onwards. You excel by your accurate analysis and political experience, and - if I may say so at this moment, Mrs Theato was extremely pleased that one of her partners in battle and even office neighbour in the European Parliament could deliver the ceremonial address today.
In the whole of Europe, and I mean the Europe that is so much broader than the Europe of 15, there is certainly no one better than you. I must say that I am already looking forward to your speech later on.
The Taxpayers’ Award, the ”European Bull”, is today being given away for the second time. It symbolizes the never-ending struggle for survival, strength and the right of self-assertion. And it also symbolizes "Europa" or Europe.
A Europe that, in line with our objective, must remain open to visions, a Europe of the regions, of citizens and taxpayers, and not of bureaucracy and regulation.
Without wishing to pre-empt the eulogies, the Award Committee of the Taxpayers Association of Europe has in my view selected prize-winners for 2000 who are especially well suited to the symbolic meaning and intention of the prize.
Mart Laar, Prime Minister of Estonia, represents the new generation and the political change in the former Eastern Bloc countries. Dear Mr Prime Minister, you were one of the first who acknowledged that economic progress can only be obtained with high-end economy. In Estonia, you created the right environment resulting in the fact that investments, and especially re-investments, have become more interesting because taxes are concerned. Your flat tax and your simple yet comprehensible tax code are an example to us all. As far as I know, your tax system has already been copied by Lithuania and other Eastern European countries. The annual tax changes in Germany alone would require more paper than your complete and annotated tax code.
You have done what the Taxpayers Association of Europe has been fighting for so many years: access to a system of taxes in which the taxpayer will be the eventual winner.
In principle, we really do not have anything against tax harmonisation on a European level. But unfortunately, the road to harmonisation has turned out to be a one-way street. Tax rates were increased and the rules became more complicated and bureaucratic, which is certainly not in the interest of the citizens and taxpayers. Everyone who is familiar with, for example, the discussions on the VAT harmonisation will know what I am talking about. Let us learn from Estonia that lower taxes and a simpler tax system can work successfully, as for example Poland and Bulgaria are dicussing it seriously.
The second European award goes to Mrs Diemut R. Theato for her battle against EU wastage as well as the clogged EU system. It is the opinion of the Taxpayers Association of Europe that this system is in need of urgent reforms in order to be able to cope with the increasing demands and the forthcoming expansion towards the east. As the chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control, Mrs. Theato, you quickly realised that budgetary control can only be effective when the system is transparent and realistic and, even more so, when the relevant possible sanctions are created. With your commitment, you are a great support to our association. You commit yourself, as the Court of Auditors and Prof. Friedmann, to the creation of an official prosecutor and a punishable character for official disloyalty as well as a uniform punishment of subsidy fraud. These are all long-term aspirations of the Taxpayers Association of Europe. This award is for you. However, I would like to ask you to accept this award also on behalf of the many EU officials of all parties who support you in your work. Even though our organisation would like to see certain things change in parliament, we do realise that the majority of officials are very concerned at fulfilling their political task with the greatest care.
A word of praise is also in order for the EU Commission of President Prodi. Since the fall of the ancient commission, a process of reform has been launched. Although we would like to see faster progress, as we have all learnt from the Nice summit, political decision-making can be a cumbersome process.
Europe must become stronger, acquire more economic power and must never loose its most valuable commodity, the multiplicity of its cultures.
We need a high-end, innovative European Parliament that represents the interests of the people and safeguards the separation of powers as well as parliamentary control.
I am therefore delighted to welcome today the following Members of the European Parliament:
Dr. Dieter-Lebrecht Koch,
Erika Mann and
Ursula Schleicher
We also greet the representatives of the EU Commission and EU Institutions,
Claude Lécou,
Dr. Harnier.
Aneil Single,
Dr. Rudolf Strohmeier,
Bernhard Zepter
and Franz-Herman Brüner.
We welcome
Dr. Reinhard Boest,
David Colvin,
Joachim Düster,
Gints Freimanis,
Inge Hiesl,
Domimik Jacek,
Priit Kolbre,
Dr. Marko Kranjec,
Joseph Kujiashvili,
M. Malbasic,
Meritxel Mateu,
Juraj Migas,
Antoinette Prizmatarova,
Wilhelm Rißmann,
Radu Serban and
Dr. Werner Walser
of the consular corps, the embassies and consulates.
For the world of economy and associations, we also would like to welcome
Prof. Dr. Ralf von Ameln, Eurocommunale,
Dr. Kurt Gaissert, Committee of Regions,
Andreas Müller-Armack, Werner Stamm and Guido Schmidt Economic Council of the Union Bavaria,
Peter Poulsen, European Federation of Accountants and Auditors,
Madeleine Schavoir, Association of Liberal Professions
and René Eckhardt und Dieter Härthe, European Confederation of Associations of SME.
I am delighted that a large number of representatives of our European Taxpayers’ organizations have joined us today. A warm welcome to
Björn Tarras-Wahlberg from Sweden, President of the
Taxpayers Associations International,
Geoffrey Adams from the British Taxpayers,
Michael Boeckhaus, Taxpayers Association of North Rhine -Westphalia,
Armanno Delvai, Italian Taxpayers Association,
Francois Izzi, Taxpayers Association of Belgium,
Angela Mai, Brandenburg Taxpayers Association,
Antti Marttinen, Taxpayers Association of Finland,
Karsten Petersen, Danish Taxpayers Association,
Dr. Jürgen Pratje, Taxpayers Association of Schleswig-Holstein,
Prof. Dr. Fred Reinertz, Taxpayers Association of Luxembourg,
Enn Roose, Taxpayers Association Estonia,
Andrei Sidelnikov, Russian Taxpayers Association,
Anatoliy Truhanovich, Belarusian Union of Taxpayers.
and my colleagues and comrades-in-arms in the Bavarian Taxpayers Association
Dr. Paul Stefan,
Peter Eggen,
Heiner Schuster and
Prof. Maier.
Finally, I really want to thank all the people who helped us with the preparation of this event
Eva Demmerle , Press officer of Otto von Habsburg,
Doris Schmidt, employee of Mrs. Theato and
Simmu Tiik, Foreign Policy Adviser of Prime Minister Mart Laar.
Finally, I should also express my deep gratitude to our Secretary general, Michael Jäger and the head of the Brussels office of the TAE, Walter Grupp and to Rainer Hilterman , for preparing this award ceremony in Brussels and for their effective work.
Of course, my dear guests, you are all very welcome here, and we appreciate that you honour us today with your presence. In the enclosed list of participants, you can see all the people who registered until 4th of January.
And last but not least I would like to greet, as representatives for the Press, TV and Radio
Secretary general Heide Ringhand and the German President Rotger Kindermann, of the Association of European Journalists
and I would like to ask them to report this occasion critically but objectively, as we have come to expect.
Thank you for your attentiveness. I will now hand over to you, Dr. von Habsburg. We await with interest your commendation.
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