Greens/EFA MEPs write to EU Commission on minimum tax

Brussels, May 23, 2022

Dear Commissioner for Economy, dear Paolo Gentiloni,
Dear French Presidency of the Council, dear Bruno Le Maire,

As you know, last week the European Parliament passed its opinion on the directive on minimum effective taxation by a large majority. This comes after two failed attempts from the French Presidency of the Council of the EU to reach unanimity under a ‘general approach’. It also comes shortly after the citizens of Europe concluded in the Conference on the Future of Europe that there should be no more national vetoes in our Union.

Unless the fear of another Polish negative has this item removed from the agenda, tomorrow the Ministers of Finance will meet again to vote on an agreement that should help establish the cornerstone of fair taxation for multinational groups in the Union.

Commissioner, if there is no agreement tomorrow, we, the undersigned, request you to use the tools at your disposal as established in the articles of the Treaty to retable this proposal through qualified majority. Member States, and most particularly France, we urge you to consider initiating enhanced cooperation as soon as possible to avoid further political damage.

It is clear that the concessions made to reach an agreement under the unanimity rule put at risk a good and smooth implementation of the global agreement.

Tabling this proposal under article 116 TFEU or under article 20 TEU will unblock the situation in Council and be a strong signal of political commitment to fair taxation.

At this stage, the vast majority of Member States, and their elected representatives are willing to move forward, but the veto of one single Member State is blocking the agreement.

We can no longer accept that the implementation of the internationally agreed OECD pillar 2 is watered down and delayed in the Union because of individual Member States who put their narrow interests before the common good of the citizens. This is deeply unfair.

Best regards,

Claude Gruffat
François Alfonsi
Rasmus Andresen
Margrete Auken
Alice Bah Kuhnke
Benoit Biteau
Damien Carême
David Cormand
Ignazio Corrao
Rosa d’Amato
Jakop Dalunde
Gwendoline Delbos Corfield
Karima Delli
Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg
Bas Eickhout
Eleonora Evi
Daniel Freund
Malte Gallée
Francisco Guerreiro
Henrike Hahn
Kira Peter Hansen
Martin Häusling
Pär Holmgren
Yannick Jadot
Philippe Lamberts
Katrin Langensiepen
Niklas Nienass
Jutta Paulus
Piernicola Pedicini
Diana Riba i Giner
Michèle Rivasi
Caroline Roose
Mounir Satouri
Jordi Solé
Marie Toussaint
Ernest Urtasun
Thomas Waitz