With 637 votes in favour, 2 against and 6 abstentions, the European Parliament approved, on Tuesday 17 January in plenary session, the opinion on the ‘UNSHELL’ directive on shell entities, voted in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) (see EUROPE 13074/42).
Given the uncertain economic and geopolitical situation, “the fight against tax fraud has never been so important”, stressed rapporteur Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese) in the debate on the eve of the vote.
“We need effective responses to the rising cost of living, (...) we need to ensure tax competitiveness that is fair and transparent within the EU”, she added.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, she explained that she had been working on the establishment of concrete common indicators of minimum economic substance, which will identify what constitutes a company and what constitutes a tax haven. This will enable national tax authorities to better identify the real purpose of a company and to react to tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. The text also provides for concrete sanctions.
For Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spanish), “shell entities are tax piracy”. He stressed the need to lobby the EU Council for ambitious legislation. Tax issues require unanimity in the EU Council.
“The problem is whether it will be blocked in the EU Council. It always raises the same question: that of unanimity”, said Aurore Lalucq (S&D, French) on the sidelines of the plenary. Like Dimitrios Papadimoulis (The Left), she wants to challenge this rule in the treaties.
Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the European Commission, said that the directive “will not interfere with existing bilateral agreements between Member States and third countries”, an issue she said was “a key aspect of the ongoing discussion in the EU Council”. “We expect an agreement in the EU Council will be reached soon and that it will be ambitious”, she said.
In order to address the issue of third country involvement in tax evasion, she pointed out that the Commission is working on another initiative called SAFE, which will address the role of intermediaries who enable tax evasion and aggressive tax, by devising tax arrangements. This initiative will be presented on Wednesday 7 June.
“Before inviting the whole world to be exemplary, we had to approach it ourselves”, argued Gilles Boyer (Renew Europe, French). He called on the EU Council to adopt the directive quickly. “In this field, where the inventiveness and speed of fraudsters are infinite, we must act with diligence and creativity”, he said.
To consult the European Parliament opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/4xe (Original version in French by Anne Damiani with Damien Genicot)