We are pleased to present an extensive body of research on EU policy issues, resulting from five-year cooperation of independent think tanks in Central and Eastern Europe. The annual publications of the More Liberal Voices project include position notes, policy briefs, and petitions on some of the most pressing EU policy issues.
Unified tax rules can hardly contribute to trade liberalisation. A diversity of tax systems is not a roadblock for free trade. Quite the opposite, differences in tax systems might serve as a stimulus to trade. Taxes constitute a significant share of costs and a large share of the price of factors of production, labour in particular.
Let’s be honest. Governments remember deregulation in their talks with businesses or during election campaigns. But they do not pay nearly as much attention to deregulation as they do to expanding regulatory obligations, increasing taxes, or telling people how to behave.
The “green mechanism”, which will become actually effective on 1 January 2016, should work. No sooner than next year we shall see, though, whether it will function effectively and meet the expectations of the majority of players.
Cash payment restrictions would increase individual and corporate expenses and would cause payment inconveniences. How would one be expected to make larger payments at weekends when interbank transfers are not made? A forced „banking“ of cash reduces competition among payments methods.
There are those who view markets as functional (albeit imperfect) tools for economic decisions and those who think markets always fail at this task. Add to that the intricacies of the energy sector, and the discussion about markets in the energy sector becomes an argument between economists and engineers written down by lawyers.
A need for deregulation in Poland is recognized by the vast majority of both experts and politicians. Calls for deregulation echo in subsequent election campaigns, though to little effect. So why, despite a seemingly broad consensus, deregulation in Poland remains a problem?
The European Commission has re-launched the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) initiative. The renewed proposal for a CCCTB introduces a two-step approach: efforts will first concentrate on agreeing the rules for a Common Corporate Tax Base (CCTB), and consolidation will be left to be adopted at a later stage (CCCTB).
After years of being ignorant to the ICT and the digital economy in general, the Czech Republic has now changed its position and declares its full support to the digital agenda as well as the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. The problem, however, is that the actual implementation of these promises has been lagging behind for a long time.
At least 70% of all drafts of normative acts submitted to the Bulgarian Parliament are with no justification and assessment of expected costs and benefits. This leads to wrong policies, costly policy mistakes, burdened businesses, unpredictable business environment and opportunities for lobbyist to act in favour of specific groups.
