EuroNews 2

Starting the engines of growth: As the Old European economies stagnate, the Eastern and Central Europe is adopting tax policies designed to spur growth. Many countries in the region, for example, have adopted flat taxes. Romania is the latest New European to restructure its tax system - the centerpiece is a flat-rate of 16 per cent, "replacing three income tax bands ranging between 18 and 40 per cent, and a corporate tax previously at 25 per cent." Taxes, particularly corporate taxes, throughout the Eastern Europe are already generally significantly lower than in the West. No wonder the Old Europe is hating the competition and trying to undermine the low tax push.

Why it matters: Because as V. Arun, research analyst with Frost & Sullivan writes, "low tax rates coupled with cheap labor prevalent in the [Eastern European] countries can have a drastic impact on the employment, investment, and industrial production in the EU member states. As a result, the corporates in the west are bound to move eastward in the hope of benefiting from the tax advantage." Yes, it will take quite some time for the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, ravaged as they still are by decades of communist economic vandalism, to reach the levels of economic development and the standard of living of the Western Europe, but as the Western Europe refuses to face the economic and demographic challenges, it might happen sooner than we think.

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