Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment^f1, (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Directive’), and in particular Article 28(6) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise any Member State that has submitted an application in accordance with the procedure and conditions provided for by Directive 77/388/EEC to apply a reduced rate of VAT to certain labour-intensive services.

The services concerned must meet the conditions provided for in the Directive and be included in Annex K thereto.

Under Council Decision 2000/185/EC of 28 February 2000 authorising Member States to apply a reduced rate of VAT to certain labour intensive services in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 28(6) of Directive 77/388/EEC^f2, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom (for the Isle of Man only) could apply, until 31 December 2005, a reduced rate of VAT to the labour-intensive services for which they had submitted a request to this effect.

Council Directive 2006/18/EC^f3 amends the Directive with regard to reduced rates of value added tax, in order, on the one hand, to extend their application until 31 December 2010, and on the other hand, to allow those Member States that so wish, to avail themselves for the first time of the possibility provided for therein, and permit those Member States that wish to amend the list of services to which they have applied the measures provided for by the Directive in the past, to submit an application for a reduction of the rates to the Commission.

In order to allow those Member States authorised by Decision 2000/185/EC to apply a reduced rate to continue to do so until 31 December 2010, and in the interests of legal clarity, the provisions of that Decision should be included in this Decision for those Member States that have not amended their initial application.

In accordance with the Directive, Greece, which was already authorised by Decision 2000/185/EC to apply a reduced rate for two of the categories listed in Annex K, has submitted a new application extending the scope of its previous authorisation. Greece should therefore be awarded a new authorisation permitting the application of a reduced rate, in accordance with its new application.

The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Finland have submitted applications to apply a reduced rate of VAT to certain labour-intensive services in accordance with the procedure and conditions provided for in the Directive.

Furthermore, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Greece have submitted applications for authorisation to apply, as an exceptional measure, a reduced rate to three categories of the services listed in Annex K. For each of these four Member States, the reduction in rate in the third of the categories selected can have only an insignificant economic impact.

In order that the Member States concerned may continue to apply reduced rates to certain labour-intensive services, as provided for in Decision 2000/185/EC, this Decision should apply from 1 January 2006.

This Decision will have no impact on the Communities' own resources derived from VAT,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: