Dr Maciej Grabowski is an eminent Polish economist and holds the position of Vice-President of the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics (Instytut Badań nad Gospodarką Rynkową). Maciej has served as team leader on various projects focusing on employment creation, SME development and tax policies. He is highly familiar with Poland's employment creation policies and strategies within the framework of EU Accession having served as a consultant to the former Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. Moreover Mr Grabowski is a well published expert in the field of economic transition, labour markets and employment development. He has recently joined Polish Lisbon Strategy Forum to serve there as a member of the Steering Committee and team leader for Forum for Entrepreneurship.

He also led a team on "Support Areas of the European Social Fund and challenges for employment and human development policy".

Abstract of the speech:

Tax integration in the EU has been widely discussed by economists and policy-makers in last decade. This topic has gained extreme opinions: there are strong opponents for any tax co-ordination and three are strong supporters for tax harmonization. However there is tax integration through harmonization and integration through competition. They are very different processes. What are the main arguments for further tax harmonization? How strong they are? What do we really know about tax integration through competition, and is tax competition harmful, or when it may be harmful? What are possible outcomes of further tax competition?

The tax settings at the EU should take into considerations at least three principles: subsidiarity, preventing of distortion, effectiveness at the national and the EU levels. The main differences among states on this issue have deep historical and cultural roots, but one may expect that further steps in tax integration at the EU level will be shaped by external factors like technological progress, globalization, and growing competition from non-European emerging markets.