On Thursday 19 April, MEPs approved by a sizeable majority (445 votes to 104 with 38 abstentions) the annual own-initiative report on competition policy, authored by Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE, Spain), which calls for measures to tackle aggressive tax planning to ensure fair competition on the single market.
The text recommends that market players pay their fair share of tax where they make their profits, in reference to dossiers recently dealt with by the Commission to this effect, which notably criticised the Luxembourg and Irish tax rulings for Amazon and Apple respectively (see EUROPE 11876).
The annual competition report could not fail to refer to the European Commission's decision of 27 June of last year against Google, in which the institution fined the US giant a record €2.42 billion for abuse of dominant position (see EUROPE 11817). On this point, the MEPs called for the institution to keep an eye on the company.
Although the report was drafted before the Cambridge Analytica scandal (see EUROPE 11984), it refers to the challenges the Commission must face concerning the protection of personal data in the framework of its investigations into anti-competitive practices.
The MEPs also wished to call the Commission's attention to the issues of anti-competitive practices in the aviation sector, with reference to the current revision of Regulation 868/2004 (see EUROPE 11995). They also laid emphasis on the protection of agricultural producers and, naturally, consumers.
Concerning the more logistical aspects, the MEPs called for more resources to be made available to DG Competition and the national competition authorities (NCAs) and for the independence of these authorities to be guaranteed. On the last of these points, they welcomed the Commission's proposal of 22 March 2017 on the NCAs (see EUROPE 11751), with inter-institutional negotiations between the European Parliament and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council having recently got underway (see article).
The rapporteur took pains to thank the shadow rapporteurs for their cooperation on this dossier. Margrethe Vestager, the Commissioner for Competition, who had been invited to attend a debate with the MEPs on Wednesday 18 April, warmly welcomed this “extremely valuable” report. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)