Religion
Vatican: EU Commission extends tax probe to Spain
Rome, 29 August (AKI) - The European Commission it is extending its investigation of the Roman Catholic church's tax breaks to Spain as well as Italy, Italian Radical party MEP Marco Cappato announced on Wednesday
"EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has told me the Commission has begun a detailed study of the tax breaks in collaboration with the Spanish authorities," said Cappato.
The Spanish probe will examine the exemption from taxes on Vatican buildings and activities granted it by the Spanish authorities. These are very similar to the local property tax breaks given the Roman Catholic church by the Italian state, Cappato said.
The Commission's move follows a complaint made during the previous centre-right Italian government's period of office by Cappato's colleague in the Radical party, Maurizio Turco, Cappato said.Turco argued that the tax breaks breached EU competition rules.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday it would request "further information" from the Italian government on a number of "tax advantages" concedeed to the Vatican, especially exemption from the payment of local authority taxes on most of its property, according to EU sources.
The Commission has not yet decided whether to open a formal investigation into whether Italy has breached EU law on state aid, Kroes's spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
The Commission's request prompted angry reactions in Italy from some prominent Catholics. Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, described it as "a provocative attack."
Italy's justice minister Clemente Mastella of the centrist Popolar-UDEUR party, said he would resist any "anticlerical" moves by the Commission. He is a former longtime member of Italy's now defunct Christian Democracy party.
The Vatican on Monday signalled its readiness to give up some of the tax breaks it currently gets from the Italian state. "The Holy See is ready to sit down at table with the government to update the Concordat and review the tax issue," senior Vatican official, Monsignor Karel Kasteel told Turin-based daily La Stampa.
Kasteel was referring to the latest version of the church-statement agreement in Italy, known as the Concordat, which dates from 1984. The Vatican receives tax breaks worth some 1.3 billion euros annually from the Italian state.
It pays only half the normal corporation tax on most of its business activities, including schools, hospitals, clinics and hotels. In Rome alone, the Vatican owns 18 hospitals, 55 clinics and 250 schools, according to La Stampa.
Kasteels' comments came less than a week after Italy's junior finance minister Paolo Cento said the issue of the Vatican's tax breaks needed to be tackled in next year's budget.
"EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has told me the Commission has begun a detailed study of the tax breaks in collaboration with the Spanish authorities," said Cappato.
The Spanish probe will examine the exemption from taxes on Vatican buildings and activities granted it by the Spanish authorities. These are very similar to the local property tax breaks given the Roman Catholic church by the Italian state, Cappato said.
The Commission's move follows a complaint made during the previous centre-right Italian government's period of office by Cappato's colleague in the Radical party, Maurizio Turco, Cappato said.Turco argued that the tax breaks breached EU competition rules.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday it would request "further information" from the Italian government on a number of "tax advantages" concedeed to the Vatican, especially exemption from the payment of local authority taxes on most of its property, according to EU sources.
The Commission has not yet decided whether to open a formal investigation into whether Italy has breached EU law on state aid, Kroes's spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
The Commission's request prompted angry reactions in Italy from some prominent Catholics. Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, described it as "a provocative attack."
Italy's justice minister Clemente Mastella of the centrist Popolar-UDEUR party, said he would resist any "anticlerical" moves by the Commission. He is a former longtime member of Italy's now defunct Christian Democracy party.
The Vatican on Monday signalled its readiness to give up some of the tax breaks it currently gets from the Italian state. "The Holy See is ready to sit down at table with the government to update the Concordat and review the tax issue," senior Vatican official, Monsignor Karel Kasteel told Turin-based daily La Stampa.
Kasteel was referring to the latest version of the church-statement agreement in Italy, known as the Concordat, which dates from 1984. The Vatican receives tax breaks worth some 1.3 billion euros annually from the Italian state.
It pays only half the normal corporation tax on most of its business activities, including schools, hospitals, clinics and hotels. In Rome alone, the Vatican owns 18 hospitals, 55 clinics and 250 schools, according to La Stampa.
Kasteels' comments came less than a week after Italy's junior finance minister Paolo Cento said the issue of the Vatican's tax breaks needed to be tackled in next year's budget.
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