Brussels, 29/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament has written to the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, to repeat its calls for the documents it has been requesting for several weeks in the framework of the work of the special committee on tax rulings (TAXE) of the European Parliament. The group is prepared to resume proceedings to set up a committee of investigation to obtain the documents which the special committee is struggling to get hold of, having been refused them time and again. An extension of this special committee's mandate beyond November is also a possibility.
The Greens/EFA group has written to the Commissioner to stress that it disagrees with his interpretation of the legal provisions on the confidentiality of the inter-institutional agreement. The group is calling for 25 documents from the 'Code of Conduct' group (corporate taxation), and the minutes of the group's meetings. “After Parliament's insistence, your Director General offered a highly restricted procedure to access these documents”, wrote Germany's Sven Giegold, going on to describe the procedure, which would allow a limited number of MEPs access to these documents in a room without the option of taking notes. “During your intervention in front of the TAXE committee on 17 September 2015, you reiterated that the Commission cannot submit the requested documents for reasons of confidentiality as laid down in Annexe II of the inter-institutional agreement. However, we understood that the missing documents have not been classified by your services and are not information covered by professional secrecy”, the MEP continues, reiterating his calls for access to the documents. Giegold is also calling for the Commission to send him the names of the member states which opposed the EP accessing these documents, together with the arguments they provided to justify their positions.
Krecké report, the missing page will be submitted. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is, for his part, prepared to send the European Parliament the missing page of the infamous Krecké report (named after the former Luxembourg finance minister) on tax evasion. This page concerns tax rulings and had been removed from the public version of the report. At the TAXE committee on 17 September, Juncker said that he was not in possession of this page. However, statements by Jeannot Krecké over the weekend contradicted Juncker, which prompted MEP Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL, Germany) to request this page. A source close to Juncker confirmed the information in the Luxembourg press that the Commission President is prepared to send the TAXE committee the missing page, following a consultation with Krecké on Monday evening. Juncker is therefore expected to reply to De Masi in the next few days. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)