Negotiations in the European Parliament on public country-by-country reporting, by proposal of the Commission, are expected to be extremely tough, with a further meeting of the shadow rapporteurs scheduled for 10 May. The stumbling blocks continue to be the scope of application of the directive, set by the Commission at €750 million turnover, and reporting to the tax administrations of the OECD.
S&D members and co-rapporteurs Evelyn Regner of Austria and Belgium's Hugues Bayet reduced this to €40 million as per the accounting standards directive, modified to include country-by-country reporting. Parliament has had many opportunities to take a position on this dossier, in resolutions or during the revision of the shareholders' rights directive. However, disagreements persist between Left and Right. A Parliament source explained that the ALDE has adopted a more conservative position than the EPP, reportedly invoking Donald Trump's arrival in the White House and his plans to revolutionise American corporate taxation. We should not go too far, it recommends.
At a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday 3 May, MEP Enrique Calvet Chambon (ALDE, Spain) made no reference to the American taxation reform. However, like rapporteur Regner, he stressed that Parliament would subsequently be up against the Council, which is defending a less ambitious position than the draft parliamentary report. “It is said that the best is the enemy of the good”, Calvet Chambon said. “We are going to have to find a happy medium in order to move forward”, he added. The EPP's shadow rapporteur, Poland's Dariusz Rosati, spoke once again in favour of the OECD's threshold, claiming this would be in the interests of businesses, which should not be put at a disadvantage compared to their competitors. Calvet Chambon then adopted the argument put forward by businesses last week that publishing certain data could alert their competitors to attempts to penetrate specific markets. “There is a principle of reciprocity that we cannot impose upon third countries”, he explained. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)