site.btaFinance Minister Goranov, Norwegian Counterpart Jensen Sign EU-Norway Cooperation Agreement

Sofia, February 6 (BTA) - Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, in his capacity as Chair of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), and the Norwegian Finance Minister, Siv Jensen, signed here an Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, combating fraud and recovery of claims in the field of value added tax, Goranov's Ministry reported Tuesday.

Norway is a member of the European Economic Area and has a VAT system similar to the one applied in the EU. The bilateral agreement will provide a robust regulatory framework for sustainable cooperation between the country and EU Member States. The Agreement's main objective is to establish a framework for administrative cooperation that would allow competent authorities to assist each other in the implementation of the VAT legislation. The document envisages the exchange of information on VAT to be on request, spontaneous and automatic, and for Norway to participate in the Eurofisc network without having direct access to the databases of the individual EU Member States. The Agreement provides for the possibility of mutual assistance in the recovery of claims, notification of documents and imposition of precautionary measures, with the absolute limitation period of claims generally being 10 years. It is set to be in effect for an indefinite period and to be complemented by technical arrangement. For the purpose of its implementation, a Joint Committee will be set up that will meet at least once every 2 years.

Before signing the document, the two ministers discussed the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU on matters falling within ECOFIN's competence, the development of the European economy and the internal market, as well as issues in the field of financial services.