Progress on tax justice must not be lost
Special committee on taxation
The presidents of the political groups of the European Parliament have today agreed to establish a special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance. The purpose of this new committee will be to build on and complete the work carried out by the TAXE 1 and TAXE 2 and the PANA inquiry committees and to look at recent scandals such as the Paradise Papers.
Today’s decision will have to be validated by a plenary vote. The committee will have 45 members and run for 12 months.
Greens/EFA co-president Philippe Lamberts comments:
“The Paradise Papers showed that there is a clearly unfinished work to do if we are to secure tax justice in Europe. We want to make sure that national treasuries are able to collect the money that is needed to build shared prosperity across Europe. The European Parliament’s inquiry committee into the Panama Papers has already produced a strong action plan for clamping down on tax dodging, including many ideas from the Greens/EFA group. This new committee can now make sure this progress is not lost and that these much needed measures are implemented by the Commission and by governments across the EU.
"The EU's tax haven blacklist has been rightly singled out as an area of concern. We need to get answers about what is really going on behind the scenes. Until the Council reveals how it decides who goes on and who comes off this list, the public can have no confidence that it is being managed in an even handed way."
