Tax reforms in EU Member States subce rhe turn of the New centuri: selected observations

The aim of this paper is to discuss certain critical aspects of the tax reform process that has been taking place in the EU MS since the beginning of the new century. Two separate periods may be identified here. The first -from 2000 to 2011- witnessed very few tax reforms: according to the EU Commission itself, tax reforms were episodic, sparse and generally of a limited nature, To check this hypothesis, the present paper analyzes tax trends during the period 2000-2011, both at aggregate EU level and by disaggregating such trends into those pertaining to each EU MS. In the wake of the great economic crisis, there has been a broader process of tax reform in almost all EU Member Countries, albeit characterized by a reluctance to accept the tax reforms that the European Commission has been recommending to certain specific countries for a number of years now. The final, concluding issue dealt with briefly in this paper, is that of the various obstacles to tax reforms, starting from a recent OECD study of the matter.