MEPs on the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Tax Matters (FISC) debated, on Monday 9 January, the draft own-initiative report on the massive data leak of the ‘Pandora Papers’. While there is a consensus on the protection of whistleblowers and the press, who are at the origin of these revelations (see EUROPE 13053/23), some MEPs insisted on not pointing the finger at Member States and individuals guilty of tax evasion.
According to rapporteur Niels Fuglsang (S&D, Danish), 183 amendments were tabled to the draft report. Representatives from each group have already started negotiations and are due to meet again on Tuesday 10 January, with a view to a vote in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on Tuesday 31 January.
“The important thing is that we get a compromise supported by preferably a broad majority of this house where we come with some recommendations and some strong ideas for how we can fight this tax haven structure” that allowed the ‘Pandora Papers’ scandal to happen, he said, adding that the negotiators had already agreed on a number of points.
“We also support the role of journalists and the importance of a journalist being able to do their work freely and they need to have unfettered access to secret documents”, stressed Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italian). The rapporteur mentioned, in particular, the fact that some Member States had still not implemented the directive to protect the press and whistleblowers (see EUROPE 12212/11).
He also called for greater transparency with regard to political leaders, “because they are the ones who are making the rules and we need to make sure that we have no conflict of interests”.
For the MEPs, measures to exchange information between Member States’ tax authorities should be strengthened. Damien Carême (Greens/EFA, French) said it was necessary to “recognise the role of certain Member States in tax evasion”.
Mr Dorfmann and Billy Kelleher (Renew Europe, Irish), represented by Frenchman Gilles Boyer, prefer to avoid the ‘name and shame’. “We think that what we should be focusing on is the practices”, said Mr Dorfmann.
According to Mr Boyer, “the purpose of this report is also not to condemn wealth”. It is to ensure that the whole wealth is a clear transfer or that wealth is transparent and that it is taxed properly.
In addition, Mr Carême mentioned two other measures that he would like to add to the own-initiative report: - an end to ‘golden visas’ issued by Member States, in particular the revocation of those held by Russians and Belarusians; - and better rules for digital nomads.
To see the amendments to the draft ‘Fuglsang’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/4tw (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)