In Brussels on Thursday 3 May, the European Parliament expressed “great concern” at the fact that tobacco smuggling into the European Union has intensified in recent years and, according to estimates, represents an annual loss of €10 billion to the public revenue of the budgets of the EU and its member states.
The plague hides a major hotbed of organised crime, including terrorism, and in their adoption of the report by Gilles Pargneaux (S&D, France) on the 2016 report on the fight against fraud, the MEPs consider that the member states must step up their efforts to tackle cigarette smuggling, for instance by improving cooperation procedures and the exchange of information.
The MEPs also expressed concern at losses due to the VAT gap and fraud relating to EU VAT, which amounted to €159.5 billion in 2015. In this context, they welcomed the adoption of short-term measures to tackle VAT losses referred to in the Commission's action plan entitled 'Towards a single EU VAT area', published on 7 April 2016. The Commission is called upon to present its proposals for a definitive VAT system as set out in the action plan, in order to avoid the loss of tax revenue in the EU and its member states. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)