The S&D co-rapporteurs on country-by-country reporting, Hugues Bayet of Belgium and Austria's Evelyn Regner, are not yet ready to throw in the towel. Following the experience of the vote in the parliamentary committees on a negotiating position, amended at the last minute by the ALDE Group to extend the safeguard clause (a derogation for companies), the two Socialists have decided to re-table a new proposed amendment. This new amendment aims to govern the said safeguard clause more strictly.
Under the text proposed by ALDE and approved by the committees, this clause basically states that a derogation to the obligation to publish the reports may be granted to companies on an annual basis, upon the authorisation of the member state in which they are established, without the two-year limit provided for by the co-rapporteurs' compromise and without reference to the opening of a new subsidiary in order to protect sensitive commercial information.
The new proposal of the co-rapporteurs would make the prior agreement of the tax authorities compulsory and for the derogation to be ultimately unable to exceed the fiscal limitation period. At the end of the derogation period, businesses will be required to disclose the information omitted retrospectively.
The text furthermore gives the Commission a mandate, in the framework of the revision clause, to reassess the need to keep this derogation in the text. According to our information, a meeting with the ALDE negotiators is scheduled for this Tuesday morning, ahead of a plenary vote in July or September. No meeting has as yet been arranged with the EPP Group. The proposal is also said to have the support of the Greens/EFA Group. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)