Romanian PM Tariceanu said on Tuesday that the first car registration tax applied by his government and harshly criticized by Brussels will neither be eliminated nor reduced, Romanian news agency NewsIn informs. Tariceanu says that the current talks with the European Commission representatives relate only to technical issues that need to be modified.
The European Commission decided last week to start the second phase of a sanctioning procedure against Romania because of the first car registration tax, considering that the response of the Romanian authorities was unsatisfactory at its call to drop the tax as it is now.
The Commission set a two months deadline for the Romanian legislation to change and threatened to send the case of the European Court of Justice if Romania fails to comply.
Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian will meet EU officials to assure them that the government will initiate a set of emergency ordinances in February-Mach 2008 to standardize the legislation.
