Brussels, 06/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The special committee TAXE2 has finished its work for good, with the adoption of its final report by a large majority of MEPs (514 votes in favour, 68 against and 125 abstentions). The report issues recommendations regarding the fight against aggressive tax optimisation. Although generally, the text goes further than anything that has already been decided upon at European and OECD level, the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups nonetheless flagged up the last-minute manoeuvres of the ALDE and EPP groups to withdraw certain issues confirmed by the vote of the parliamentary committee.
“There's no longer anything bad to be said about audit firms, as if they were not to blame. We can no longer say that the states have failed in their obligation of sincere cooperation. We can no longer state that there is a move to prohibit patent boxes by 2021”, in reference to tax regimes favourable to intellectual property, lamented the co-president of the Greens/EFA, Belgium's Philippe Lamberts. The GUE/NGL also made a list of the points not approved in plenary, such as the specific political responsibility of certain European leaders over these issues. There are good elements in the report, but the “grand coalition continued to shield the architects of the EU's tax havens, like Mr Juncker and Mr Dijsselbloem”, Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL, Germany) told us.
One possible explanation is that the usual configuration of the TAXE2 committee was favourable to these two groups. On the day of the vote, various absences reinforced this configuration. Furthermore, the EPP voted piecemeal. All of the amendments of the Greens/EFA were therefore approved. Taking this into account, this means that the large groups did not, de facto, return to earlier positions. On behalf of the EPP group, MEP Danuta Hübner reiterated her view that the TAXE 2 committee had made no new revelations or discoveries. The two rapporteurs, Germany's Michael Theurer (ALDE) and Jeppe Kofod of Denmark (S&D), welcomed the result of the vote.
In areas in which the Commission has not yet made proposals or announcements, the MEPs call upon it to look into the possibility of introducing financial responsibilities for tax advisers engaging in illegal tax practices, guidelines to define what is permitted in terms of transfer prices, better protection for whistleblowers and a European withholding tax to ensure that profits leaving the EU are taxed in it at least once. The committee of investigation into the 'Panama Papers', for its part, is due to start work next week. (Original in French by Elodie Lamer with Lionel Changeur)