Brussels, 23/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Recent consultation of confidential Code of Conduct Group documents by MEPs seem to have convinced them that the 'soft law' applied by the Group is not effective enough.
The documents accessed showed that since 2009, the European Commission was aware that exchange of information among member states about transfer prices was not taking place. In 2010, the Commission unveiled guidance notes about these “harmful” tax initiatives, the transparency of tax rulings and exchange of information from one country to another. In 2012, following discussions that revealed that no country can be taken as a model for this type of information exchange, the Commission decided to develop an “instruction model” that was approved by the member states on 3 June 2014, a few days ahead of the announcement by the Commission of in-depth investigations into a number of tax rulings (Fiat Finance and Trade in Luxembourg, Apple in Ireland and Starbucks in the Netherlands).
Interesting facts were hidden from us during consultation of the Code of Conducts documents, complained Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, co-president of the Greens/EFA at the EP, at a press conference on Friday 23 October. Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL, Germany) said: “In addition, documents from earlier than 2010 are missing and content has been censored from the documents upon request by thirteen of the 28 member states.” The two groups are still playing with the idea of extending the term of the special TAXE committee and say they have the support of the ALDE group. The Greens says the S&D is not making its views clear on the matter. On Thursday 22 October, the S&D announced, following the approach announced last week by the group's German division, that it no longer wants to talk to lobbyists from multinationals that refuse to address the special committee (see EUROPE 11413). Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA) said it was a welcome announcement but the key issue is “to clarify if the mandate has been fulfilled or not. We can't state yet who was responsible in which member states, can't state who was politically responsible, including in the Council and the European Commission, for not acting. The mandate has to be extended - otherwise the EP will risk its reputation in front of the citizens.” Google and Facebook have agreed to appear before the special committee on 16 November. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)