Should corporation taxation be harmonised within the EU?

The central and eastern European states that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 have corporation taxes that are mostly far below the level of the EU-15 countries. Consequently, Germany and France requested the EU Commission to unify the assessment principle for corporation taxation and to set minimum tax rates for Europe that the individual member states cannot fall below. Ralph Brügelmann, Institute of the German Economy in Cologne, argues against such a harmonisation and proposes that existing tax constraints be eliminated by way of the bilateral negotiations. Prof. Otto H. Jacobs, University of Mannheim, identifies the necessity of corporation tax reform in Germany. And Prof. Alfons J. Weichenrieder, University of Frankfurt am Main, underscores that to enable European co-operation in the taxation of enterprise profits, due respect must be paid to national tax autonomy.