Brussels, 28/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker says that the approach recommended by the MEP Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium) could speed up the process of transparency on tax rulings.
According to Lamberts, transparency should be imposed on businesses, which should be obliged to publish the “rulings” from which they benefit in their annual reports. When asked about this point by the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, Juncker explained that he had referred Lamberts to his Commissioner for Taxation Pierre Moscovici. This approach, unlike a tax directive, which requires unanimity, “could speed up the process, possibly by qualified majority. If this is feasible, I will be delighted”, Juncker said in an interview published on Friday 28 November (our translation throughout).
What is currently under consideration, in order to shed more light on these rulings, is reported to be a revision of the directive on administrative cooperation, with the work to start early next year. Although Luxembourg, which has come under fire over these rulings following the Luxleaks scandal, has already stated that it will be open to the operation, other states, such as Ireland, could drag their heels a little more.
When asked about what he would do if he could turn the clock back to when these rulings were being negotiated by hundreds of multinationals, Juncker said that he would do “exactly the same thing” again. “We had no choice but to diversify our economy, but I would have tried to familiarise myself more with these rulings, and I would have changed the law to allow the finance minister to have been informed of them”, he said.
For its part, the S&D Group at the EP called the same day for a crackdown on tax havens, tax fraud and tax avoidance. The measures called for by the S&D include the adoption by the Commission and the member states of a clear definition and common criteria to identify and blacklist tax havens and an obligation for multinationals to pay taxes where they produce their profit. In the absence of a majority in support of the idea, the EP has given up on the idea of an investigation committee into the Luxleaks affair and may draft an own-initiative report. There has been some talk of two reports drawn up by three rapporteurs, but there is by no means unanimity on the figure of three. Decisions may be made next week. (EL)