On Tuesday 14 May, the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament unveiled ten key tax justice priorities for 2019-2024, many of which were already included in the European Parliament's special 'TAX 3' committee report (see EUROPE 12203/5).
Presenting the agenda to the press, German MEP Sven Giegold said these priorities will also guide the Greens' choice in the negotiations for the appointment of the President of the European Commission.
Asked about allies who could support such an agenda, Mr Giegold said that “all serious pro-European forces should be in favour”. While 10 years ago, support on these issues came only from the S&D and GUE/NGL groups, he now believes that tax justice has become a more transpartisan priority (see EUROPE 12246/4).
The Greens want to prioritise tackling the dirty money that finances crime in Europe. They advocate “stronger European tools” to fight money laundering, such as the establishment of a European financial police force, and want to give Europol greater powers in this area. They also recommend that the 'anti-money laundering' directive be transformed into a regulation and wish to put an end to 'golden visa' programmes in the EU.
They also want to consolidate the European blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions from a tax point of view (see EUROPE 12212/5). For Sven Giegold, the list was a success, but it lacks a sanctions regime. The MEP also said that his group was waiting for the final adoption of the list of countries at high risk of money laundering (see EUROPE 12210/24) and hoped that the European Commission would not give in to blackmail from Member States to remove countries like Panama and Saudi Arabia from the list.
Environmentalists also want to focus on transparency. For Mr Giegold, the European Commission should respond to the current blockage in the EU Council of the legislative proposal on country by country reporting (CBCR), which would require companies to make public certain accounting data such as their turnover, profits and taxes paid (see EUROPE 12175/4).
“This subject must be at the top of the political agenda of the Commission and the EU Council”, he said. But neither the Austrian nor the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union showed much interest, he regretted.
The Greens agenda also includes the adoption of a European action plan to “tax the super-rich”, strengthened rules on tax advisers, the adoption of the common consolidated corporate tax base (‘CCCTB’) - even with enhanced cooperation -, a minimum effective tax rate of 18% for companies and increased taxation on aviation.
The end of the unanimous voting rule in the EU Council on tax matters is also one of their priorities (see EUROPE 12172/22). “As some EU Member States block tax progress, they are breaking the social contract and feeding the rise of the far right”, they write in their document.
For several blocked dossiers, such as the European Digital Services Tax (see EUROPE 12212/6), they also consider that the Commission should make use of Article 116 of the TFEU, which allows for qualified majority voting in order to eliminate distortions of competition due to different tax rules.
See the agenda: https://bit.ly/2JjEsgY. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)