Thirteen companies petition EU against Hungarian tax law
Thirteen leading companies have appealed to Brussels for help in doing away with Hungarian laws that impose special levies on large foreign companies conducting business in Hungary, according to a report published Sunday in the German weekly Die Welt.
In a five-page letter sent to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the heads of the companies called on Brussels to put pressure on the Hungarian government to make it “abandon the unjust financial [measures],” which Budapest has defended as a necessary means to shoring up its overstretched budget.
Among the companies that signed the letter were energy groups including Germany’s RWE and E.on, Czech firm CEZ and Austria’s OMV, as well as Dutch financial groups ING and Aegon. French insurance firm AXA and German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom were also on the list.