The French delegation of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, led by MEP Damien Carême, wrote on Monday 22 March to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to ask France to reconsider its position on the country-by-country reporting (CBCR) proposal, in light of the interinstitutional negotiations due to start next week (see EUROPE 12676/36).
“At a time when Europe and the world are going through an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis, this legislative proposal to strengthen tax transparency is of the utmost importance. Now more than ever, it is imperative to ensure that public coffers are not deprived of billions of euros just because of tax evasion by many multinationals”, write MEPs.
The letter calls on France to defend an “ambitious position” in the upcoming negotiations and, in particular, to review its position on the safeguard clause in the EU Council’s general approach (see EUROPE 12670/11).
This clause would allow multinationals to withhold requested information for a period of six years, if the information could be detrimental to their commercial position.
According to MEPs, this is a “major loophole that opens the way to many abuses, not only because the definition of what could be harmful is extremely vague, but also because this risk is unfounded”.
See the letter (in French): https://bit.ly/2Ps8YcA (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)