EU-KOMMISSIONEN OCH DEN ÖKANDE BOLAGSSKATTEKONKURENSEN - En jämförande textanalys av ställningstaganden från Kommissionen angående skattekonkurrensen av bolagsskatter

Abstract

Historically the European Commission is seen as a supranational institution that prefers the member states in EU to be unified. Corporate tax-competition within EU has grown over the years and as a result the European Commission has formulated actions related to tax-competition in communications to the European parliament. The thesis aims to answer and gain understanding on how the European Commission responds to this development. The actions formulated by the European Commission will show their agenda and positions according to the increasing tax-competition. Either the European Commission is an institution that acts in manners to gain power to further centralize corporate tax-rates or an institution that favors decentralization and prioritize the interest of the member states. To the debate regarding the European Commission’s agenda regarding tax-completion Neofunktionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism will be presented as options in which directions the Commissions actions leans. These theories will create the analytical tool that will be used to gather the results. My findings demonstrates that The European Commission agenda and actions regarding the corporate tax-competition in EU strongly supports Neofunktionalism to a great extent but also supports Liberal Intergovernmentalism in some areas.