The EU Integration Process and Direct Taxation from a Southeast European Perspective: Part II Impact of Accession Negotiations on Direct Taxation in Acceding Countries

Abstract

Bearing in mind the very limited scope of the acquis which is supposed to be implemented within the Stabilization and Association Agreement framework, the second part of this article is dedicated to analysing the impact of the accession negotiations on direct taxation in the Southeast European countries. Although the closing of the tax chapter during the accession negotiations with a particular acceding country should imply the required full alignment of its direct tax legislation with the acquis, the reality in numerous cases in the previous enlargement processes is far from the expected. In the area of European Union (EU) secondary tax legislation analysis has shown that the accession procedure will, in most casts, ensure the timely and full compliance of an acceding country with its requirements. However, the alignment of acceding countries legislation with the part of EU direct tax law stemming from the negative integration processes is much more demanding. In essence, there can be no absolute certainty that every provision of an acceding country's direct tax legislation has been placed under sufficient scrutiny during the tax chapter negotiations process and that its required full alignment with the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been ensured. The authors conclude with an observation that the various approaches applied to different countries which have attempted or are attempting to become EU Member States within the accession process, beg the question of the objectivity of the process and how important is the role of political influences and interests on the success of a particular country in joining the EU.