Brussels, 09/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a vote by show of hands on Monday 8 June, the MEPs decided to delay the vote on the 'shareholders' rights' directive, by request of the S&D group.
An agreement is possible, but more time is needed to negotiate, was the reason given by the Social Democrats. The GUE/NGL backed the postponement and no group took the floor to oppose it.
This is not the first hold-up for this dossier, which is the subject of a position of the committee on legal affairs. By request of the EPP, ALDE and ECR groups, the conference of the presidents of the political groups of the EP decided to put the dossier back to the plenary session (see EUROPE 11314). The rapporteur on this dossier, Sergio Cofferati (S&D, Italy), then asked for the vote to be pushed back to July, but the conference of the presidents declined his request (see EUROPE 11328).
The central issue, over which civil society is radically at odds with the employers and financial players, concerns 'country-by-country' reporting. The organisations BusinessEurope, Ecoda and European Issuers argue that the text's legal basis would make it impossible to include reporting of this kind. The three organisations also believe that the publishing requirement on all companies (even unlisted ones) has never been properly assessed. They firmly believe that it could have a harmful effect on states (loss of tax revenue) and businesses (risk of market losses and double taxation). In the opposite corner, Eurodad and Oxfam are bringing pressure to bear, for instance through the social networks, to convince the MEPs to take position in favour of greater tax transparency. (Elodie Lamer)