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What happened to Brown's EU victory?

• Mark Mardell
• 22 May 08, 10:15 AM

Ever wondered what happened to Gordon Brown's triumph?

At the last meeting of the European Union's prime ministers and presidents, he grabbed headlines by unexpectedly persuading the other leaders to look at cutting VAT on environmentally friendly products.

Many at the time thought the leaders and the Commission were willing to give him the headline, but precious little of real value.

British diplomats haven't been told by Downing Street to push the idea, and currently it's stuck in the office of the commissioner for taxation.

The Commission tells me that this is not a new idea; it is at least two years old. They have two investigations going on. One is to look at whether reducing VAT on environmentally friendly goods does actually persuade people to buy them.

The second is how you define "environmentally friendly". A spokeswoman points out that technology changes so fast that today's friend can be tomorrow's foe.

So, perhaps, the reports may be done before the summer holidays and could lead to proposals by the end of the year.

But the Commission is not keen, and a penny to a euro they'll propose some tax incentive: but it won't mean a cut in VAT.

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