EC Commissioner Ludovic Orban talks about first car registration tax

Romanian EC Commissioner for Multilingualism said in a HotNews.ro interview that the EC report assessing Romania’s progress will be a factual and objective one. Orban also talked in the interview also about Romania’s first car registration tax and other issues pertaining to his mandate.

Regarding the European Commission’s report for the justice sector, Orban says that all he could declare was that the report would be balanced, factual and present the sector’s development in several sub-fields. Moreover, the justice report would be a base for the final report that will be set up in the summer.

Orban argued that Romanian officials should treat the safeguarding clauses with seriosity as they are very important. He added that the first car registration tax was a good example to show that with benevolence, Romanian officials could avoid unnecessary reactions.

On the issue, Orban says that Romanians that already paid the first car registration tax last year could receive their money back, as the European Court of Justice rules that any sum received as a tax and is non-compatible with the communitarian acquis should be returned. Thus, he encouraged people to claim their money back since they’re entitled to.

Regarding his mandate as Commissioner for Multilingualism, Orban said that 2008 is an important year as his team will set up a new policy in the field. The document will be presented later during the year and will contain the opinion of both high level officials and European citizens.