Should other EU countries have to import Italian bureaucrats just to even the playing field some? I bet the Germans wouldn't be so competitive with the addition of a good selection of public employees from Rome.
But still, a country lowering taxes to a point where it would attract most of the income of companies operating throughout EU is acting like a parasite, the host being the EU, the blood being the income.
Lowering corporate taxes should be made at the EU level. Because the EU was not intended as a playing field with EU countries competing against eachothers but rather as something more symbiotic where countries specificities would help compete against the rest of the world.
Makes for good political rhetoric, but I don't think it bears much relation to reality.
Germany for instance is not 'shriveling up and dying' because of Ireland, and neither is France for that matter.
Also, the economy is, fortunately, not a zero sum game with a fixed lump of money to go around.
You only need to look at the US as an example: California and NY are not low-tax states, and yet... and yet... there are a lot of companies and a lot of business there.
And yes, US states compete.