Meeting of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect (TAXE 2) with EU National Parliaments, on the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Pieter DUISENBERG, Chair of the standing committee on Finance of the Dutch House of Representatives,&nbsp; Stephen QUEST, Director-General, DG TAXUD (EC), Christos BGIALAS, Greek Parliament, Eric BANKI, Hungarian Parliament, Lord DAVIES of Stamford, House of Lords (UK), Jeppe KOFOD (S&amp;D, DK), Rapporteur, Danuta Maria HUBNER (EPP, PL).&nbsp;

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

KOFOD, Jeppe (S&D, DK)

HÜBNER, Danuta Maria (EPP, PL)

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

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

BÁNKI, Erik (EPP, HU)

DAVIES, Chris (Renew, UK)

The Anti-Tax Avoidance Package: extracts from the exchange of views with EU National Parliaments

Atmosphere at the meeting (4 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Pieter DUISENBERG, Chair of the standing committee on Finance of the Dutch House of Representatives, As current acting EU presidency the government has stated it is seeking compromises and work towards solutions for all European countries who want to tackle this issue, while maintaining the level playing fields and remaining attractive for international businesses

SOUNDBITE (English), Stephen QUEST, Director-General, DG TAXUD, European Commission, I think the Panama Papers showed really how essential it is to have EU and global cooperation in tackling co border tax abuse. Now in the EU we are already implementing a binding new framework to eject more transparency into individual's accounts, to look at beneficial ownership and to look at banking practices. Once this framework is fully functional it will be extremely difficult for tax avoiders in their efforts to hide money abroad at least in the EU. And we are using our strength as a Union so to also push international partners for similar provisions as committed into various global flora.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Christos BGIALAS, Greek Parliament, We also have tax havens, inside the EU and outside the EU and in third countries. This is what's creating a non-level playing field, this is what's creating problems for countries with a high rate of tax avoidance. Greece is a country with a high level of tax avoidance. One of the problems we are facing is the fact that neighbouring countries have very low tax rates. This is a further aspect that is making a recovery from the financial crisis difficult.

SOUNDBITE (Hungarian), Eric B&#193;NKI, Hungarian Parliament, Hungary supports coordination with the EU Member States as well as with OECD countries, and we would like to create a good cooperative environment in the fastest way possible, of course the competence of national governments needs to be maintained

SOUNDBITE (English), Lord DAVIES of Stamford, House of Lords (UK), I think it is also quite dangerous for the Union to give the impression that they can solve their problem when they can't because it is like to arise expectations that will lead to an unfortunate disappointment. In actual fact, if anything is going to be done, about tax avoidance, turning tax avoidance into tax evasion for example, it needs to be done in the level of the Member States by changing the tax rules in each individual country. There are several things I can recommend doing, particularly introducing a general anti-avoiding rule, a GAR, which we have done belatedly in the United Kingdom having being cheated for some time by a lot of international multinationals companies, including Google and Starbucks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeppe KOFOD (S&amp;D, DK), Rapporteur, We have an issue here where it is a national competence to collect taxes and set the tax rate but we have a situation in our global economy where we can see that even though we have the national competences sometimes it is hard to fulfil it because there are a tax evaders and tax avoiders out there both in the corporate world and also with the Panama Papers we saw it, with the Private household assets and I think what is the common task for us, National Parliamentarians, European Parliamentarians, is to ensure that we have the real power again in National Parliaments to collect the taxes that we should.

SOUNDBITE (English), Danuta Maria H&#220;BNER (EPP, PL), I think to strike the right balance between what has to be done in EU level and what should go to the national level which is something extremely important but in general, I would say as a result we will have probably a variety of legal instruments and policy instruments that will be a need in fact to keep using policy instruments which will be active in different level which also means that we need an unpredecent level of cooperation and monitoring.