Members of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Taxation (FISC) debated on Monday 7 December their first ever draft resolution on the reform of the European ‘black’ list of tax havens.
The initial draft text, drawn up by Subcommittee Chair Paul Tang (S&D, Netherlands) and accompanied by a written question to the EU Council and the European Commission, calls for greater transparency, stricter listing criteria and stronger defensive measures against tax evasion and fraud (see EUROPE 12608/30).
A total of 134 amendments have been tabled to the draft text. A first draft of compromise amendments was already discussed on 3 December and a new version of the text was discussed by the shadow rapporteurs on Monday, before the vote in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on Thursday 10 December.
Despite some differences of opinion, the rapporteur noted that all political groups shared a willingness to increase the efficiency and address the lack of transparency of the EU Council’s Code of Conduct Group responsible for preparing the work on the list. There would also be a consensus on the need for clearer and stricter criteria and stronger democratic control of the list, with closer involvement of Parliament.
Gilles Boyer (Renew Europe, France) particularly welcomed the proposal to formalise the listing process as well as the proposal to automatically include jurisdictions with a tax rate of zero or close to zero on the European ‘black’ list.
Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL, France), said the text would benefit from being more precise on Parliament’s involvement in the process and should also call for closer monitoring of countries on the ‘grey list’ of countries that have made commitments to reform their tax practices.
One of the thorny points in the negotiations concerns the mention of European tax havens, contained in the compromise currently on the table and widely supported by the S&D and Greens/EFA groups.
During the debate, several MEPs from the EPP group, including Hungary’s Enikő Győri and Spain’s Isabel Benjumea, argued that “there are no tax havens in the EU”, but “tax competition between Member States”. They wished to see this mention disappear from the final text.
Conversely, Manon Aubry asks that the text go even further and explicitly names the European countries this mention concerns.
The FISC subcommittee hopes that the resolution will obtain a large majority in the final plenary vote in January, in order to send a strong message to the Commission and the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)