Today, the Conference of Presidents adopted the mandate for a new Special Committee on financial crime, tax fraud and tax avoidance. It is the 4th committee of the European Parliament after TAXE, TAX2 and the Committee of Inquiry PANA. Parliament is also responding to the publication of the Paradise Papers. The mandate was negotiated across the political groups. All relevant proposals fromour group have been accepted. The new Special Committee will also review the extent to which the EU Commission and the European Member States have implemented the recommendations of the previous special committees on LuxLeaks (TAXE and TAX2) and the Committee of Inquiry on the Panama Papers (PANA). Approval by the plenary session of the European Parliament on 1 March is only a formality.
Sven Giegold, the Green negotiator for the agreed mandate, says:
“The pressure of the Parliament for tax justice in Europe will be intensified. The former special and inquiry committees have contributed successfully to the progress for tax cooperation in Europe during the last years. Unfortunately, the Paradise Papers scandal has not had any new political consequences neither in the EU nor in the Member States. The new tax haven blacklist of the EU lacks credibility and transparency. We will demand full access to all documents on the screening of third countries. We will assess whether some countries or jurisdictions received unjustified special treatment. We also have to follow closely the compilation of the strengthened EU blacklist of non-cooperative money laundering jurisdictions. The mistakes of the tax haven blacklist may not be repeated. It is totally unacceptable that the EU’s blacklists do not include the most important places in the world of shadow finance.
We also ensured that the Parliament will investigate for the first time tax privileges for new residents or foreign income such as citizenship programmes or non-dom regimes. Such distorting privileges are offered by Portugal, Italy, Malta, the United Kingdom and Cyprus.
In the context of Brexit the committee will give particular attention to the British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.”
The mandate of the new special committee as decided: https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/adopted-taxe3-mandate-2018-02-08.pdf