Letter: Pay Eurotaxes or lose jobs

Sir: What is The Independent doing blaring out headlines like "Now Britain faces single European tax system" (16 January)? This language caters to a paranoid, Eurosceptic fantasy according to which EU proposals are a series of schemes dreamed up by foreigners to impose on Britain.

In fact, any EU state might have something to gain from a development of this kind. EU countries are already suffering from their lack of co- ordination over taxation, which, in a context of capital mobility, weakens their power to tax revenues and profits effectively. The result has been a forced drift towards taxes on employment and sales.

Dr NOEL PARKER

Lecturer in European Politics

University of Surrey, Guildford