Following the brilliant news from the EU Council and First VP Timmermans on Wednesday that they will make sure there are no adverse impacts on micro businesses and entrepreneurs, due to the new EU VAT rules, we urgently need your help.
Timmermans was tasked by Juncker (EU President) to check out whether the EU VAT mess is real. But he still used the word “If” in his statement. “IF there are adverse effects…”
We need to help remove any doubts he has. We need to fill his Twitter inbox with evidence that this IS a genuine EU-wide problem.
And Martin Schulz, who is the President of the European Parliament, is clearly not convinced that this mess is real. I have just been watching the full debate from Wednesday (that took some coffee!) and his sarcastic comments about this being nothing but UK pre-election spin totally belittle the suffering of tens of thousands of micro businesses and show he doesn’t yet believe this is a genuine problem. Please tweet him, too. Especially any German businesses you know – if he can see this hurts home-grown businesses and not just the UK he’s more likely to listen.
PLEASE tweet both of them, using the hashtag #EUVAT, to tell them why it’s a problem for you. You might also like to link to the impact assessment report:
Here are their details:
Frans Timmermans
@TimmermansEU
Syed Kamall MEP has promised to organise an urgent meeting for us with Frans Timmermans, so maybe you could tweet Mr Timmermans to ask him to meet with us next week?
Martin Schulz
@MartinSchulz
Here are some sample tweets you might like to share:
Thank you @TimmermansEU for plenary on #EUVAT. You say IF there are adverse effects. How much more evidence needed? http://t.co/WZU76y1J4b
— Clare Josa (@clare_josa) March 27, 2015
Your plenary comments on #EUVAT being UK election spin belittle suffering caused to 10,000s EU-wide. @MartinSchulz http://t.co/Tc7C7J0js0
— Clare Josa (@clare_josa) March 27, 2015
.@MartinSchulz please note the European concerns in this article over #EUVAT – this is not just a UK issue http://t.co/Y3u3DIhisl
— Juliet E McKenna (@JulietEMcKenna) March 27, 2015
.@MartinSchulz another European article highlighting problems with #EUVAT months ago from Spain. Not just a UK issue. http://t.co/WLZSyLBa9t
— Juliet E McKenna (@JulietEMcKenna) March 27, 2015
And you might like to tweet the guys below to thank them for their support on #EUVAT and for raising this at the highest levels – it’s really important to show gratitude and give credit where it’s due:
@Ansip_EU – VP of EU Commission on DSM (He listens to the hashtags #DigitalSingleMarket and #DSM)
@SyedKamall
@GuyVerhofstadt
@VickyFord
@CatherineMEP (Catherine Bearder)
And finally:
A super-helpful insider told us on Wednesday that Donato Raponi (DG of VAT for the EU – no Twitter account) still isn’t convinced that this is a real problem, but that the way to convince him is via his boss – Pierre Moscovici (DG of Tax for the EU – @PierreMoscovici). So please send your tweets to him, too.
Let’s give them something life-changing to think about over the weekend.
Please tag us (where you have space!) & let us know via the comments here and at the campaign group, how you get on.
@euvataction
@clarejosa
@julietemckenna
Thank you!
EU VAT Action Team
