12/09/2022 (Agence Europe) – “No one strictly said we want soft law only, no one ruled it out either”, Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura said on direct taxation in the EU on Saturday 10 September at a press conference following the informal Ecofin meeting in Prague. “Member States thought that there could be more effective taxation if we went beyond soft law”, he added. For his part, Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice-president of the European Commission, announced his intention “to put forward his proposals” on the ‘BEFIT’ initiative on corporate taxation. Unveiled in 2021, this initiative, expected in 2023, is intended to create a common set of rules for groups of companies operating in the single market (see EUROPE 12721/3). BEFIT will build on the pending OECD agreement on international taxation (see EUROPE 13018/8). (AD)