Member States are expected to take a step towards the European Parliament to reach an interinstitutional Agreement on the proposed directive to increase public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) in early June.
On Wednesday, 26 May, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union will present to the ambassadors of the Member States a global compromise proposal which is somewhat close to the positions of the European Parliament on the issue of the breakdown of information on certain accounting data (turnover, profits, taxes paid) relating to the activities which European companies or branches of foreign groups established in the EU, with an annual turnover exceeding 750 million euros, carry out in third countries.
This would require the disaggregation of accounting data for activities carried out by the companies concerned with third countries on the EU black list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes and with third countries that have been on the ‘grey’ list of jurisdictions which committed to take some actions on tax cooperation for three consecutive years.
“Although the Presidency is aware that this solution is not optimal for a number of delegations, it considers that this political move towards the European Parliament could pave the way for an overall balanced compromise package”, says the EU Council document, of which EUROPE obtained a copy.
Twelve third countries are currently on the EU ‘blacklist’: American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Palau, Panama, The Seychelles, Dominica and Anguilla (see EUROPE 12659/1).
Furthermore, the Portuguese Presidency suggests reducing from six to five years the duration of the safeguard clause which would allow a company concerned to omit certain sensitive accounting data whose disclosure would be detrimental to its commercial position.
And the European Commission will be asked to report on the functioning of the future directive five years after the transposition deadline, which would be two years after the final adoption of the legislation.
See the Portuguese Presidency’s compromise proposal: https://bit.ly/3bUkEgL (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)