EU 'to seize data on property ownership'*

By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 04/09/2006)

The Government yesterday denied claims by a leading Conservative MP that
the European Union is planning to seize control of information about the
ownership and value of private property in nation states, as a first
step to what could become an EU-wide property tax.

Eric Pickles, a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and shadow
minister for local government, had expressed alarm at a European
Commission proposal, known as Inspire — Infrastructure for Spatial
Information in Europe — that would force national mapping agencies such
as the Ordnance Survey in Britain to pool data and present it in a
standard European format.

Inspire would include so-called "cadastral" data about property
ownership and land use. This is necessary to help implement cross-border
policies to do with the environment, transport and regional policy,
Brussels has said.
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Mr Pickles also accused a "conspiracy of cartographers in Brussels" of
plotting to "wipe Britain off the map", through a scheme to break
Britain up into regions that cross national boundaries.

Under a long-standing project for regional integration, the United
Kingdom would fall into five "transnational" regions, whose public
bodies would be urged to co-operate without going through national
capitals. For example, the North Sea Region would cover the eastern half
of Britain and parts of Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Norway.