Brussels, 14/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 April, the conference of the presidents of the groups of the European Parliament agreed to set up a committee of investigation into the Panama Papers scandal, with its mandate to be agreed in the meantime and approved on 4 May.
The outstanding issue is what the MEPs will decide to do with the existing special committee TAXE II, which followed on from TAXE I, which was created in the wake of LuxLeaks to look into tax rulings and measures of a similar nature or with similar effects. The Greens/EFA group, in its proposed mandate for the Panama Papers committee of investigation, argues that it should assess the implementation of the recommendations of TAXE I. The Greens' proposal also makes several references to administrative cooperation between member states. The draft mandate of the EPP is virtually identical to that of the Greens, but without the references to administrative cooperation or monitoring the recommendations of TAXE I. The head of the S&D group, Italian MEP Gianni Pittella, said that he had no problem with the Panama Leaks committee of enquiry continuing the work of TAXE II. The Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL see this as a good way to oblige the other institutions to provide them with the documents of the 'code of conduct on corporate taxation' working group, which they are struggling to get hold of.
“We cannot go from one tax scandal to the next without ending the investigations underway; this would undermine the credibility of our work and that of the European Parliament”, said French MEP Eva Joly of the Greens/EFA group.
The President of the Special Committee TAXE II, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), is calling for the establishment of a slightly more cross-cutting permanent sub-committee of the EP, so that it could also deal with issues related to VAT. Few other members of his group went along with this idea. Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) explained that these actions should be completed with greater emphasis on taxation issues on the part of the economic and monetary committee of the EP.
For the EPP group, Spain's Pablo Zalba Bidegain said that he wished to hear the government of Panama and the law firm Mossack Fonseca, at the centre of Panama Papers. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)