MEPs who participated in a debate on "fair taxation" on Wednesday 13 February, expressed widely divergent views on the possibility of moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting in the EU Council on tax issues.
Opening this debate in the Chamber in Strasbourg, Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Taxation, suggested that the various political groups in Parliament give serious consideration to the European Commission's proposal to replace unanimity by qualified majority in the Council in the tax field (see EUROPE 12172).
According to him, "if there were a large majority on these benches tomorrow to position itself in this direction [switching to qualified majority voting], it would change the situation". "Some very reluctant ministers I saw yesterday at Ecofin (see EUROPE 12192) could not ignore it”, he insisted.
Reacting to the Commissioner's call, several MEPs present expressed their support for the move to qualified majority voting, although some doubted that it would materialise.
"I wish you good luck in this direction. I do not know how far we can go, but I am sure that this Parliament must resolutely support this proposal", Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) told Mr Moscovici.
Peter Simon (S&D, Germany) said: "If we really want to make progress towards a fairer tax system, we must move from unanimity to qualified majority voting [...] This is the only way to avoid tax evasion at a European level".
The same is true for his German compatriot Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA) and Italy’s Mercedes Bresso (S&D). For them, there would also be a majority in Parliament in favour of such a change in voting rules.
However, while some MEPs such as Gunnar Hökmark (EPP, Sweden) and Richard Sulík (ECR, Slovakia) expressed reservations, fearing that such a measure would lead to a general increase in taxes in Europe and thus weaken the EU's competitiveness on a global level, others clearly rejected this option on the grounds that it would violate the sovereignty of Member States.
"Tax justice is not the same as tax harmonisation and I am firmly opposed to the Commission's proposal [...] Millions of EU citizens, especially those from less powerful states, are concerned about this move towards qualified majority voting [...] This means that tax policy can be imposed on a country against the will of its democratically elected government”, said Matt Carthy (GUE/NGL, Ireland).
"The ability to levy and collect taxes is one of the sovereign manifestations of countries. We are absolutely opposed to the end of unanimity in the Council on tax matters", Nuno Melo (EPP, Portugal) joined him in saying.
After listening to the divergent views of MEPs, Mr Moscovici acknowledged that with this proposal, he had mainly wanted to open a debate on unanimity in tax matters, and that he knew very well that it would not be adopted during this mandate. According to him, the time is right, because the European elections are approaching and it is precisely a "great citizen debate". (Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)