Luxembourg, 05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The President of the special committee on tax rulings (TAXE) of the European Parliament, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), has negotiated with the Commission conditional access to the documents of the meetings of the 'code of conduct' group on corporate taxation drawn up over the period 2010 and 2015.
Under the agreement negotiated with the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, two members of each political group and three representatives of the Secretariat of the TAXE committee will be allowed to examine the documents at a meeting behind closed doors and after signing a declaration of confidentiality stating that they will not divulge the content of the documents to any third party. Electronic devices (telephones, cameras) will also be prohibited and the members will not be allowed to take any notes during the meeting.
The Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament has already stated that it sees this agreement as a “bad joke”. It is calling for an extension of the mandate of the special TAXE committee in order to obtain full access to documents of the Commission and the Council. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)