Brussels, 14/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 January, the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament announced that it had gathered 194 signatures to set in place a committee of enquiry into tax evasion and tax dumping, in light of the LuxLeaks scandal. The signatures of 188 members of the European Parliament were needed for this move. The group presidents will now decide, this Thursday, whether this request will be submitted to the plenary, to take position by simple majority.
Germany's Sven Giegold said that the group was prepared to negotiate changes to the mandate of this committee of enquiry. The Belgian Philippe Lamberts, co-president of the group, explained that it was not about putting Jean-Claude Juncker, the current President of the Commission, on the spot, but about seeing whether the states are prepared to put an end to the “tax war”. He stressed that the committee would show that Luxembourg was not alone. According to Giegold, tax competition in its exacerbated form may even breach Community law. When asked about the likelihood that the committee of enquiry would get the simple majority required in plenary, Lamberts said that he hoped to “appeal to the MEPs' good sense”, as the “citizens would not understand why the EP is not tackling” the issue. Giegold stressed that half of the German EPP members (of Angela Merkel's CDU party) had signed, along with 31 S&D MEPs, 14 members of ALDE, 11 from the ECR group, almost everybody from the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups, and the MEPs from the Italian Five Star movement (EFDD). He went on to say that it was clear to the group that they would rather not build a majority with those who oppose Europe, such as MEPs from the Front National or UKIP.
In a statement, Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE group, said that he accepted a committee of enquiry on one condition: “we should also continue our work on the report with legislative proposals in order to find a European solution against tax evasion and tax fraud”. (EL)