On Tuesday 20 June, the members of the European Parliament held an initial debate on the Commission's proposal aiming broadly to simplify the VAT rules applicable to cross-border e-commerce, particularly by removing the exemption for small consignments from third countries.
The rapporteur, Cătălin Sorin Ivan (S&D, Romania), welcomed the proposal to extend the mini single window for electronic services to include goods sold online, to extend all cross-border services to end users and to extend the new single window to imports. However, he would prefer to give the member states three months more (April 2021, rather than January) for their businesses to be able to adapt their electronic systems. UK MEP Molly Scott Cato (Greens/EFA) questioned the justification for this extra time.
The rapporteur also cut from ten years to five the obligation to keep registers of operations covered by the single window, regarding which the Commission is proposing to apply the rules of the country of origin. The German MEP Bernd Lucke (ECR) called this amendment into question. Werner Langen (EPP, Germany), said that he feels the eight amendments to the text all had justification. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)