The newly elected chair of the Panama Papers Inquiry Committee talks to EPTV about the Parliament’s new mission.

“We want results for the citizens”

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11508065/n003-0413-enx.srt

In June the EP approved the establishment  of a Panama Papers Inquiry Committee

On 10 July the 65 members  of the committee

elected Werner Langen as their President.

Now they have one year to examine  alleged breaches of EU law.

It's about letter box entities, money  laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Whether this inquiry committee  has indeed enough power

to introduce the necessary stricter laws,  is something MEPs still have to prove.

Werner Langen, you're  the newly elected president

of the new Panama Papers  Inquiry Committee.

I think that  tax justice and fair tax competition

are an essential element of the European  Single Market and a global system.

If you look at the referendum  in Great Britain,

the rural area against the financial elites

from London and its surroundings,  you can say it's a societal problem

to bring about justice.  This year I want to have clarification

and make suggestions on what went  wrong in the last few years and decades.

And make suggestions  on how to settle the issues.

We want to increase the pressure  on the Member States and the institutions

There are various issues. One is  the individual use of letter box entities

and methods of tax avoidance.  Another question is if the laws

in single Member States deter competition.

And the third question is how we can  generally achieve more justice.

Following Tax I, Tax II and Lux Leaks it  seems the Parliament had enough time

to do something about it.  But not much has happened.

I would like to quote you briefly:  "The German and European legislators,

but also the global community  are called upon

to refrain from delaying the necessary  introduction of stricter laws,

and to sanction corruption  and tax evasion more severely.

Do you think that in the last few years...

I didn't say it like that.  That's your interpretation.

Right. Ok.  But I didn't say it like that.

It's about developing  the positive approaches based on TAXE,

getting transparent access  to documents,

considering binding or  non-binding OECD recommendations

about the necessity to change the principle  of Member States' unanimity in many areas.

For example in tax matters,  where they all invoke their tax autonomy,

but which leads to unfair tax competition.

If you compare this to the United States  or Germany, what possibilities are there?

In the US it's very easy for deputies to say  "we want to see Tim Cook from Apple".

"We want to have  the biggest bank managers here".

And they are convened.  Will you do the same?

We will try.  There's no legal basis for that.

But we also want to play a role in the further  development of the right of investigation.

Secondly, false statements are sanctioned  with criminal probation in Germany.

214,000 offshore companies,  that's 11 million documents:

We will probably listen to journalists in the  first official sitting at the end of September,

to those journalists  who have made all of this public,

and, if possible,  also to the whistleblowers.

Regarding the whistleblowers,  for example Antoine Deltour,

the whistleblower  who made Lux Leaks possible:

if you see how they have been helped,  namely not at all,

what will you do?  -We will have a discussion on that.

I think it's unfortunate  that he had to appear in court.

I can imagine that we'll discuss a statement  on how to deal with it in the future.

In any case we won't let this deter us  from getting the necessary information.

Werner Langen, thank you and good luck.  -Thank you.