European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes on Monday called on U.S. tech companies to stop "paying peanuts in tax," urged the U.S. to end "unfair competition" and open up its telecoms markets to European competitors.
Speaking on "giving a boost to the EU-US relations in the field of Information and Communications Technologies," while addressing American Chamber of Commerce - EU conference in Brussels, she made it clear that "multi-billion dollar companies cannot long continue to pay peanuts in tax." There are many people suffering right now in the EU: and large public deficits. U.S. companies should understand that being good citizens in the EU is not compatible with large-scale tax avoidance, Kroes said.
Tax avoidance on such a large-scale makes greater trade and openness between the EU and U.S. a lot harder to do, she noted.
Kroes wants more transparency from the U.S. on PRISM and said that the debate around PRISM is "a golden opportunity for people to make a huge privacy-focused company." At the same time, she admitted that Europe can learn from the net neutrality rules in the U.S.
The EU and the U.S. are the world's two largest economies, together representing over half the world's GDP; and they are among the most open. The bilateral trade relationship already amounts to two billion euros a day, and sustains 15 million jobs. In 2012, U.S. investments in Europe amounted to $200 billion, through which U.S. companies are generating welcome jobs and earnings in Europe.
Kroes said EU-US relations can be "even more beneficial if we give priority to the digital economy." She called for opening up American market.
Kroes reminded that "there are some huge opportunities on offer in the transatlantic market - not just to remove trade barriers; but to establish a true regulatory and investment partnership, boosting our exports to the U.S. by 28 percent; boosting our growth, wages and quality of life."
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