On the evening of Monday 15 April, for their last plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs have again discussed a dossier that is undoubtedly one of the major failures of the EU under their mandate, namely the adoption of a European digital services tax (see EUROPE 11986/10).
Only consulted on this matter, the European Parliament had already decided in December 2018 on an ambitious tax (see EUROPE 12159/25), but last March, the Member States officially acknowledged the impasse (see EUROPE 12212/6). The dossier is thus added to the list of those already blocked because of the unanimous vote rule for tax matters in the Council of the EU, claimed MEPs.
The European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, also expressed his disappointment and considered that “the failure to reach an agreement on this file is largely explained by the unanimity rule”.
The European Parliament rapporteur, Paul Tang (S&D, The Netherlands), or the Austrian Othmar Karas (EPP) both called for a gradual shift to qualified majority voting, as proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 12172/22), and admitted that what had been lacking was indeed “political will” on the part of some Member States.
However, the intense discussions at EU level have not been in vain, Mr Dombrovskis assured MEPs. According to him, this not only provides a framework for Member States wishing to introduce such a tax at a national level, but also for the EU, which could decide to resume discussions on a European solution if there is no agreement at the OECD by 2020.
In effect, it is now in the context of international negotiations at the OECD that discussions on digital taxation will take place and the next challenge for the EU is to try to define a position in order to speak as one (see EUROPE 12183/18). The European Commission also requested a specific debate on this matter at the May Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 12231/20).
“It will be important that in our effort to modernize tax rules, we avoid repeating mistakes from the past. Creating new layers of complexity cannot be a way forward, we need to think of systems that are simple and future proof”, concluded the Commissioner. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)