Press conference by Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR), Chair of the TAXE Committee and Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Grand-Duché de Luxembourg and by Elisa FERREIRA (S&D, PT) and Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), Rapporteurs on the meeting of TAXE Committee ad hoc Delegation to Luxembourg.

press conference

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

Luxembourg

LAMASSOURE, Alain (EPP, FR)

THEURER, Michael (ALDE, DE)

Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect

FERREIRA, Elisa (S&D, PT, EC)

TAXE Committee ad hoc Delegation to Luxembourg: extracts from the press conference by Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR), Chair of the TAXE Committee and Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Grand-Duché de Luxembourg

Establishing shots Luxembourg (3 shots)

Exterior of the Parliament of Luxembourg

Arrival of the EP Delegation and handshake between Alain LAMASSOURE (FR, EPP), Chair of of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings of the EP and Eugene BERGER, Chair of the Finance Committee of the Parliament of Luxembourg (2 shots)

Exterior European Convention Centre Luxembourg (ECCL)

Door sign saying &lsquo;TAXE Committee delegation to Luxembourg&rsquo;

Handshake between Alain LAMASSOURE (FR, EPP), Chair of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings of the EP and Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, &ldquo;Luxembourg has been singled out/highlighted by the fact that more than 500 rulings originating here have been published on the internet, so that it is the rulings of our country that are posted on internet, but of course not the rulings of other countries, whilst 26 out of 28 Members of the EU employ rulings, most of the OECD or G20 countries do it. So it was an occasion for us to show our will to cooperate with the TAXE Committee. We have nothing to hide.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, &rdquo;We have to act in a way to achieve a level playing field, in order to avoid that Europe alone in its corner takes laudeable and welcome action, puts itself in a unfavourable competitive situation.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre GRAMEGNA, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, &rdquo;In contrast to popular belief, the rulings of Luxembourg are not secret for the European tax administrations or the tax administrations with which we have international agreements, secondly Luxembourg will engage in the Presidency of the EU in an ambitious manner, with a lot of ambition to advance fiscal matters.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (French), Alain LAMASSOURE (EPP, FR), &ldquo;We are facing a phenomenon which will oblige us to change. And I have to say about the full day that we have passed in Luxembourg, the impression that we will take away is that there is an evident change in state of mind which takes into account the development of society, of the evolution of the economy and of the necessity in which all our countries are, to adapt their economic and fiscal models.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), Rapporteur, &rdquo;We will follow and work very hard along the lines that already wer expressed by the Presiden Mr.Lamassoure, but in particular CCCTB, country-by-country reporting, automatic exchange of information rank very high on our agenda.&rdquo;

SOUNDBITE (English), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), Rapporteur, &rdquo;What I take back is that we have to find the right balance, between stayin competitive in a global perspective, but also to lower the competitive disadvantages which are created by multinationals who use extensively aggressive tax avoidance measures, and which place small and medium-sized enterprises which cannot use that in a disadvantaged position.&rdquo;