No European Tax

Good news from Europe is that the proposal for allowing the EU Commission taxing power has been rejected. Giving the Commission tax powers would have been dangerous at best and disastrous at worse. Governments in the EU can at least claim democratic legitimacy when they raise taxes. If the people do not like taxes being raised, then they could at least theoretically vote for a lower tax party.

But the EU Commission is not directly accountable to the people that pay taxes. The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament are supposed to keep tabs on the commission but compared to other legislative bodies both the Council and Parliament are relatively weak. Europeans should be looking at ways to take power away from the Commission not giving more power.