On Thursday 21 June, the special committee of the European Parliament on financial crimes, tax fraud and tax evasion (TAX 3) held a hearing of representatives of Nike and McDonald's concerning their taxation practices. But more attention was attracted by those who were conspicuous by their absence.
Indeed, a number of companies turned down their invitations. The chair of the special committee, Petr Ježek (ALDE, Czech Republic) referred to the refusals of Apple and Kering Group to attend, the former due to judicial proceedings underway preventing it from commenting publicly (see EUROPE 12035), the latter as its CEO was unavailable today.
Intermediaries Appleby and Baker McKenzie also sent their apologies for reasons that are less clear, but cloaked in “confidentiality”. Ježek described these refusals as unacceptable. “Silence obviously leaves all possible scope for interpretation and speculation”, he added.
“I suggest setting up a blacklist of uncooperative companies who disregard the European Parliament, the representative of 500 million European citizens”, said MEP Dariusz Rosati (EPP, Poland) in a press release following the hearing. The aim of this list would be “publicly shame” these companies, but also to bar them from access to the institutions of the EU. Readers may recall that the Greens/EFA group has already made a similar proposal (see EUROPE 12035).
As for the companies who did attend, the hearing was a disappointment to many and the MEPs considered that there responses were overly vague and unspecific. Luděk Niedermayer (EPP, Czech Republic) asked them about how businesses had reassessed their attitude to greater transparency in taxation matters following the 'Panama Papers' revelations.
Broadly, the representatives of McDonald's and Nike, Irene Yates and Patricia Johnson, replied that tax questions do not determine their companies' operational structure or location. “These things are not decided on tax choices”, Yates said.
The coordinators of the political groups will meet again on Monday to decide on the next steps following this hearing and the refusals to cooperate. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)