Brussels, 27/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - A fairly arduous round of inter-institutional negotiations will open this Monday 13 May, on the revision of the 'shareholders' rights' directive, as the European Parliament has decided that it would not abandon its amendments on country-by country tax.
Readers may recall that the EP's position on this dossier brought in amendments aiming to require multinationals to publish certain accounting data, in other words public country-by-country reporting (see EUROPE 11354). When the negotiations were launched, the Council took the view that it would be better to await the outcome of the Commission's impact assessment on public reporting (see EUROPE 11421), which itself led to a proposed change to the directive on accounting standards (see EUROPE 11530). The EP's negotiators on shareholders' rights therefore made a tactical decision not to drop their amendments on tax transparency. Over at the Council on Friday, concerns were raised that the EP may take the 'shareholders' rights' directive hostage to make sure that this transparency is pushed through, one way or the other. This Monday's 'trialogue' is therefore expected to focus on this specific issue.
The EP's position on this dossier (shareholders' rights), which aims to change accounting standards with some legal gymnastics, is more ambitious than the Commission's recent proposed directive. Over at the EP, it is emphasised that continuing to work within the shareholders' rights context will save some time, as the parties are already in trialogue.
As regards the Commission's proposal to revise the accounting standards, there have only been two technical meetings as yet. Despite the apparent need for a political orientation on this dossier, the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU did not include the matter on the agenda of the 'Competitiveness' Council held this week in Brussels. The next meeting of the 'Competitiveness' Council will be held in late September. At the informal meeting of the finance ministers in Amsterdam, Austria, Malta, Germany and Belgium expressed clear misgivings about the proposal. At technical level, Luxembourg, Sweden and Malta have called for a change of legal basis. This proposal, which comes under the heading of corporate law, will be decided upon by qualified majority of the Council in co-decision with the EP. A number of states take the view that as the underlying policy is taxation policy, the decision should be made unanimously. However, there is little chance of the Dutch Presidency of the Council taking this on board.
At the EP, the question as to which will be the competent parliamentary committee has not yet been decided upon. Theoretically, it will be the committee on legal affairs. Austria's Evelyn Regner (S&D) would be the rapporteur. She is also a member of the special 'TAXE2' committee of the EP. However, the level of ambition differs even between the MEPs, as was shown by the debate on reporting to the tax administrations (see EUROPE 11550). (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)