EU to Ireland: Your Sovereignty Has Been Cancelled

Who can issue an order so out of whack that even the financial beneficiary plans to get it reversed?

Why yes, it is the European Union (Telegraph, UK).

On Tuesday, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Ireland should recoup €13bn plus interest in unpaid taxes due between 2003 and 2014 after illegal aid stretching back 25 years.

Apple records much of its worldwide sales, including in the UK, in Ireland, and has built up a colossal cash pile it is yet to bring back to the US, where it is based.

To be fair, tax avoidance is far from a settled political issue, and Vestager – a center-left politician from Denmark – likely frowns upon it, especially given Pádraig Belton’s account (Spectator, UK).

In reality, Vestager – Denmark’s former deputy PM – is under political pressure from several national capitals to deliver these kind of results. But she’s a willing taskmaster. The daughter of two Lutheran rectors, Vestager sees herself as Denmark’s ‘David’ going after corporate ‘Goliaths’’ (or at least that’s how her biographer puts it). Apple, then, is just another ‘Goliath’ for Vestager as she aims to rescue Europe’s place in its people’s hearts by taking down the giants. She’s certainly got a track record, having taken on EDF, Fiat and Starbucks. But these were small friendlies leading up to today’s test.

Vestager knew today’s ruling was upping the stakes in her campaign to break big business. Consequently, she took no chances in ensuring the maximum amount of publicity: using an emergency procedure to avoid the usual fortnight notice period for such a ruling to avoid any leaks. It worked: the news has been across the headlines around the world all day.

No doubt the €13bn had something to do with it. Curiously, the Irish government – despite having badly indebted itself by insisting on a massive bank bailout less than a decade ago – is in no mood to pocket the money (Telegraph again).

Michael Noonan, the Irish finance minister, said the country would appeal against the ruling. “I disagree profoundly with the Commission. The decision leaves me with no choice but to seek approval to appeal,” he said.

One might wonder why Noonan doesn’t just smile and take the money – as Belton notes, it would fund the Republic government’s health care budget for a full year.

Of course, it could also convince Apple to look elsewhere to hang its hat; the pro-Brexit Daily Mail wasted no time lining up folks to remind readers that the UK is soon to be free of the EU, Ms. Vestager, and all the rest.

Indeed, what likely has Noonan et al in the Irish government so miffed is the EU’s decision that tax agreements made in Dublin going back 25 years can suddenly be upended by a Brussels Commissioner accountable to no one. Indeed, one could argue that US states have more control over their taxing arrangements than EU “member nations.”

For yours truly, this is the real problem in the EU ruling. One can argue that Apple should pay more in corporate income taxes. One can insist that the Republic of Ireland gave away more in tax unpaid than was worth the economic development Apple provided. However, these are – or at least should be – arguments for the Irish people to have, and for their elected officials to decide.

To have such decisions reversed by fiat from a former Danish cabinet minister ensconced in Brussels is yet another reminder that the six counties of Ireland with the most political transparency, sovereignty, and genuine democratic power are in fact the ones that will leave the European Union, as part of the United Kingdom.

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