The French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, was in Warsaw on Friday 22 February to meet his Polish counterpart, Teresa Czerwińska. In a joint declaration signed on the same day, the two ministers agreed on the Franco-German proposal for a European tax on digital services that would only apply to online advertising (see EUROPE 12152).
The declaration recalls that both countries are still waiting for the OECD to reach agreement by the end of 2020 on proposals to address the challenges of digitising the economy (see EUROPE 12183). But it acknowledges that, in the meantime, the EU must provide "an effective and harmonized solution in case the conclusion of an international agreement takes longer than expected".
While several countries have been sceptical about the very low income that an online advertising tax could generate and the attractiveness of such a tax seems to be decreasing as European countries announce the introduction of national measures to tax digital services, Poland clearly supports the adoption of the directive in March.
The subject will be on the agenda of the Ecofin Council on 12 March (see EUROPE 12190). Until then, the French minister will continue his campaign of persuasion against the resistant countries. He will also visit Dublin on 26 and 27 February. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)