The unsigned document which has recently been circulating in the Permanent Representations of the Member States and in the European Parliament on country-by-country reporting (CBCR) found itself at the heart of a controversy on Friday 23 April, after the revelation by Contexte about the origin of the document.
The document in question, which was published in detail in our columns on Thursday (see EUROPE 12704/7), was in fact based on a position by the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF)—the main representative of French companies—before being amended and taken over by the French Ministry of Finance. Contexte even points out that a tax expert and lobbyist appears to have prepared the document in the file’s metadata.
In the European Parliament, the news came as a shock, a few hours before the start of the second meeting of interinstitutional negotiations on the proposal this proposal would oblige companies to make public certain accounting data such as their sales revenue, profits and taxes paid.
Most members of the European Parliament negotiating team reacted by calling the revelations “shocking”. “Member States must work in the interests of their citizens instead of acting at the behest of big business”, stated Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria), one of Parliament’s chief negotiators on Twitter.
“We regret the confusion caused by the use of a document originally created by MEDEF”, said a French source on Friday, assuring that France remained fully committed to tax transparency.
The source also noted that, unlike other countries, France supported the proposal from the outset and opposed the introduction of a fiscal legal basis, so that the text would not be blocked by a unanimous vote instead of a qualified majority.
But the pill is proving difficult to swallow, especially for the French MEPs, who denounce their country’s “double talk”.
“The French government is showing great hypocrisy on this issue, as it publicly presents itself as a herald of tax transparency at European level, but does everything behind the scenes to scupper the negotiations” said Aurore Lalucq (S&D, France) in a statement.
For Damien Carême (Greens/EFA, France), by defending the interests of MEDEF instead of the general interest, the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, is thus becoming the “gravedigger of tax justice”.
“Who sits across from us at the negotiating table today: the States or MEDEF? It is time to separate the French State from the lobbies!” reacted Manon Aubry, who is negotiating on behalf of The Left group.
Civil society also reacted en masse on Friday. “Under the guise of defending a ‘balanced’ directive, France could derail the negotiations by asserting these positions as red lines”, also worried Quentin Parrinello, spokesperson for Oxfam France.
However, according to the same French source, the document does not change France’s position, which simply supports the compromise found by the Portuguese Presidency and adopted by the EU Council in its general approach (see EUROPE 12670/11).
“Unnecessary polemics will not help to make progress on this important issue. The reality recalled in this paper is that France remains fully committed to a rapid adoption of this text”, added the source.
At the time of going to press, the results of the second ‘trilogue’ were not yet known. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)