Portugal, which took over the reins of the EU Council on 1 January 2021, confirmed, in its work programme, its ambition to reach an agreement on the proposal for ‘country-by-country reporting’ (see EUROPE 12624/35). The country writes it down in black and white: it will strive to “create the conditions” for a political agreement between the Member States.
After unsuccessfully urging the German Presidency to put the dossier back on the agenda of the EU Competitiveness Council, some MEPs wrote to Portugal at the end of November asking it to make this proposal a priority over the next six months (see EUROPE 12612/10).
The other major issue of the Portuguese Presidency will be digital taxation. It should be recalled that the European Commission has agreed to give the OECD a last chance to reach an agreement on international tax reform by June 2021 at the latest (see EUROPE 12579/21). A stocktaking exercise on this subject should take place at the EU Finance Ministers’ meetings in March and June.
Other Portuguese priorities include the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion through non-cooperative jurisdictions and the implementation of the Action Plan preventing money laundering (see EUROPE 12482/8).
Furthermore, Portugal wants to promote green taxation and a fiscal policy that is in line with the decarbonisation objective.
Lastly, it should be noted that the provisional agenda of the Ecofin Council of 16 March includes, as a possible item, a political debate or, at the very least, a progress report on the financial transaction tax.
See programme: https://bit.ly/38Xm0oS (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)