The European Parliament, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, on Tuesday 11 December, approved by 337 votes to 100 with 222 abstentions, the report for opinion drawn up by Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spain) on the proposal for a Council directive temporarily authorising Member States to apply a generalised reverse charge mechanism in order to combat so-called 'carousel' fraud more effectively.
As a reminder, on this dossier, Parliament is only consulted and the Council of the EU has already adopted a general approach on the text on 2 October last (see EUROPE 12108).
Overall, MEPs are in favour of applying the mechanism until 30 June 2022 for supplies exceeding an invoicing threshold of €25,000 - instead of the €10,000 proposed by the Commission - in Member States where carousel fraud represents at least 25% of the VAT gap.
However, they objected to the possibility that a Member State that shares a border with a Member State that applies this mechanism could also be authorised to apply it under certain conditions.
It should be noted that the S&D group abstained from voting. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)