On Friday 19 June, the European Parliament used the urgency procedure to adopt, by 500 votes to 152 with 13 abstentions, its opinion on the proposal for an EU Council directive extending certain deadlines for the submission and exchange of tax information that have been made more difficult to meet by the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12483/7).
MEPs gave the green light to the Commission’s proposal to postpone by three months certain deadlines for the exchange of information under the Administrative Cooperation Directive, despite requests from the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups to reject the proposal.
Amendments co-signed by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups were adopted to make it clear that this postponement should not, however, “undermine the Union’s policy to combat tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning through the exchange of information between tax administrations”. MEPs were also in favour of removing the option to further extend the deadline.
The Member States already agreed in early June (see EUROPE 12498/33) on a six-month postponement and on maintaining the possibility of extending the postponement for a maximum of three months by a unanimous EU Council implementing decision.
Now that it has received the Parliament’s opinion, the EU Council initiated the written procedure for the adoption of the directive on Monday 22 June, which should be completed on Wednesday 24 June. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)