Score at the Southbank Centre in London today and tomorrow follows two childhood friends who know how to harmonise through good times and bad.
An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic, and maritime safety regulations were harmonised internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS); both measures are still in force today.
That would prevent the EU harmonising taxes through European law, and might force would-be tax harmonisers, probably among the 11 founder members of the euro, to pursue their goals on a voluntary basis.Such a strategy might help Britain to avoid being forced to harmonise corporate or savings taxes.
Today, g7+ is 18 members strong, with the stated goals (pdf) of "stopping conflict, building nations and eradicating poverty through innovative development strategies, harmonised to the country context, aligned to the national agenda and led by the state and its people".
Gijs de Vries, the Dutch government's representative at the convention, argues that, if the current proposals go through, "the vast majority of national criminal law will have to be harmonised in the very near future...harmonisation of national law cannot be limited to mutual assistance in combating crime.
But the bill is now likely to sail through Congress, after being endorsed late last month by the foreign-relations committees of both houses.Each house, however, tinkered with the bill, producing different versions that will have to be harmonised.
"It would be a low tax harmonised across countries.
Data-collection systems need to be upgraded and harmonised.
Some donors have harmonised and even pooled their support.
