All eyes will once again be on Germany on Tuesday 6 November, at the meeting of the Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 12129), which will discuss the Commission's proposal for a 3% tax on the gross earnings of the activities of digital platforms ('digital services tax' or DST).
“We have no solution yet; let us be quite clear. Between Germany and France, we have still not found the landing point that will give us a decision by December”, the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said on RMC on Monday 5 November (our translation).
Last week, however, he announced that Paris and Berlin were within an ace of an agreement on taxing the digital sector (see EUROPE 12127), as the two countries had pledged to do in the Meseberg declaration in June (see EUROPE 12044).
Upon his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday, the German minister, Olaf Scholz, appeared to be hoping for the best of both worlds, calling for rapid progress at both OECD and EU level.
On the French side, in any event, there seems to be a preparedness to make concessions, as long as the decision is made in December, the French minister went on to say upon his arrival of the Eurogroup meeting. The decision is not about “what” but “when”, a French source confirmed.
With Germany not yet ready to give its blessing to an agreement, Ireland still staunchly opposed and various other countries, such as Sweden and Denmark, still harbouring misgivings, several observers are starting to doubt the feasibility of an agreement in December.
One French source played down the situation, stressing that it was “just the usual Brussels drama”.
Le Maire to meet worried European businesses
As well as having to win over his European opposite numbers, Le Maire will start meetings in the coming days with the heads of 16 European digital businesses, including Spotify and Booking.com, which voiced their grave concerns in a letter last week (see EUROPE 12128), a French source announced.
“We support all of today's successes and also hope to create the right conditions for tomorrow's successes. And to do this, it is also important to restore healthy competition conditions”, the source explained. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana with Pascal Hansens)