This is the time of the making or breaking of Europe. When over one generation from now we will be looking back at this period of the turn of the century we will recognize this as the period during which we finally made it, or we finally blew it. By the time the new EURO notes will slide through the money machines, the Europe that we have known will have changed forever. The reason lies in the stark political choices that are facing the European Union. The outcome of these political choices will be decisive for the shape of the European tax policy in the years to come.2