Just before the sensitive hearing of Jean-Claude Juncker in the PANA inquiry committee the committees on economic and monetary affairs and the legal affairs called off the vote on new tax transparency rules for transnational companies. The common voting session was scheduled for today at 9 am and was shifted on the demand of centre-right groups. It should now take place on the Monday of the next Strasboug plenary session on the 12th of June. The Commission has suggested to require transnational companies to publish key tax data on a country-by-country basis in the EU-28 and countries blacklisted as tax havens. The proposal came after on the demand of the European Parliament as a response to the LuxLeaks scandal.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:
It is now time for all members of parliament to take responsibility for tax justice. It is unacceptable that transnational corporations are dodging taxes while local businesses are left behind. Transnational corporations should be required to be transparent to citizens and investors for their tax behaviour. Tax data should not only be published for EU countries but also for third countries such as the offshore financial centres, the US, China and India.
The resistance of Germany’s minister of finance Schäuble against tax transparency is poor show for fair competition. The German government is the key culprit for blocking tax transparency in the Council of member states.
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You can find our report “How Luxembourg resisted European tax coperation and made money with its circumvention” here: http://extranet.greens-efa-service.eu/public/media/file/1/5183
The hearing with Jean-Claude Juncker will be broadcast live from 3pm on Tuesday, 30th May: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/de/committees/video?event=20170530-1500-COMMITTEE-PANA