“We remain committed to the global tax agreement concluded within the framework of the OECD”, assured Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, at the press conference following the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) on Tuesday 18 February.
During the breakfast, the ministers discussed the issue of tax negotiations within the OECD at a time when US President Donald Trump has announced his country's withdrawal from the international reform of the global minimum tax (see EUROPE 13562/8, 13574/22).
The Commissioner said that the EU would continue to “insist on the benefits of multilateral cooperation and the rules-based global system”, particularly at the upcoming G20 meetings in Cape Town, South Africa. “We will continue to value global solutions addressing international tax problems”, he added.
While according to Mr Dombrovskis there are currently no discussions on cancelling the directive, the Hungarian Minister for the Economy, Márton Nagy, was of the opinion before the meeting that the withdrawal of the United States would pose a problem for the EU in terms of the competitiveness of the entire region. “We have to avoid the big multinational companies leaving the EU and moving to the US, for example, or other countries”, he warned.
“We therefore have to investigate whether in its present form, the global minimum tax is really valid for the future to preserve or strengthen the competitiveness of the EU”, he stressed. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)