The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) gave the green light on Wednesday 5 May on the adoption of the ‘Fiscalis’ programme for the period 2021-2027, which aims to encourage cooperation between EU tax administrations (see EUROPE 12037/15). The text is expected to be formally adopted at an EU Council meeting next week.
A partial agreement had been reached in February 2019 between the co-legislators on the outline of the programme (see EUROPE 12199/16), while the budgetary aspects were settled in March 2021. The Coreper had already confirmed the final compromise text on 31 March and the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) did the same on 22 April.
The co-legislators agreed that the programme should apply retroactively from 1 January 2021. They also decided that it would be implemented through multi-annual work programmes adopted by the European Commission through implementing acts.
They also specified the actions eligible for funding, setting out a non-exhaustive list of priority themes for said actions.
The Commission is further empowered to adopt delegated acts to amend the indicators and to supplement the Regulation with provisions on the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
In terms of budget, the Commission’s proposed budget of €269 million in current prices was maintained.
Coreper also approved a statement by the Council of the EU which “notes the interest of the Parliament for more transparency concerning the implementation of EU legislation in the field of fighting against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance”.
In particular, the EU Council recognises the added value of holding annual exchanges of views with the European Parliament and the Commission on the lessons learned from the ‘Fiscalis’ programme. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)