On Wednesday 20 January, MEPs questioned the European Commission and the Council of the EU on the state of play of their discussions on the revision of the European ‘black’ list of tax havens. They expressed their determination to work towards an ambitious reform.
In July 2020, the Commission published a Communication (see EUROPE 12528/2), in which it proposed a reform of the ‘Code of Conduct for Business Taxation’. Almost 6 months later, no information is available on how this recommendation was received by the EU Council, regretted Paul Tang (S&D, Netherlands), in his oral question.
During the debate, Ana Paula Zacarias, Secretary of State for European Affairs of Portugal, indicated that the response from Members States can be found in the conclusions of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12607/19) adopted in November on fair and efficient taxation, in which they take note of the communication and recognise the need to strengthen the list.
If the Commission chooses to bring forward a legislative proposal on this subject, within the limits of its competence in the field of taxation, it will get all the necessary attention from the EU Council, she guaranteed.
For his part, the European Commissioner for Taxation, Paolo Gentiloni, confirmed that this reform continues to be an “absolute priority” for the Commission. In his view, the EU Council's conclusions are already a “step in the right direction”, as they recognise that more work is needed.
On Thursday MEPs will adopt a resolution on their vision for reforming the EU's ‘black’ list of tax havens.
The text, drawn up by the ‘FISC’ subcommittee (see EUROPE 12608/30) and adopted by the ‘ECON’ committee (see EUROPE 12620/24), proposes several ways of improving the transparency and coherence of the list and suggests stricter criteria, accompanied by stronger defensive measures against tax evasion.
It should be noted that the S&D and Greens/EFA groups have tabled an amendment calling for this reform to take place by the end of 2021, “to protect the Union from further financial losses in the post-Covid-19 recovery period”.
For its part, The Left group has also tabled several amendments to explicitly recognise that at least five Member States (Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands) would be considered tax havens if they were subject to the listing process. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)