Statement by &nbsp;Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE) and Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT)&nbsp;following the announcement by Margrethe VESTAGER, Member of the EC in charge of Competition on the Outcome of the ongoing European Commission investigations.

Brussels

statement

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

VESTAGER, Margrethe (DK, CE)

THEURER, Michael (ALDE, DE)

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

Outcome of the ongoing European Commission investigations: MEPs statement following the announcement by Margrethe VESTAGER, Member of the EC in charge of Competition

Exterior shot of the European Parliament in Brussels.

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "Our suspicion that there are specially tailored taxation models that help big international corporations pay very little taxes is now confirmed. This are two spectacular cases that show how important it is, that we implement a new legislation, namely a common tax base, in order to prevent a few member states from cutting sweatheart deals with big companies".

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael THEURER, "I presume that the fines imposed are fair and it is now essential that Luxembourg and The Netherlands implement these fines as soon as possible and collect the uncollected taxes from both companies and establish true competitive equality with other companies, specially with small and medium companies, that didn't have these tax advantages". 

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "We would like to see a more active role of the Commission, the infringement procedures for illegal state aid are an effective instrument for single cases, for these violations of fair competition. But this is just for particular cases, what we want is to close all loopholes".

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael THEURER (ALDE, DE), "I, in any case, as a rapporteur, am in favour of preventing these companies and their lobbyists from entering the Parliament if they continue to refuse to come and keep ignoring the Parliament. In sum, I hope that they do come to the Parliament and are ready to talk and answer to the questions of the of the chosen MEPs as representatives of the citizens."

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), <p>"I really welcome this decision by the Commission and this decision proves that the Parliament was right, when we created a special commission, a special committee, so to speak, a group of members from all the different parties in order to tackle the issue of fraud and evasion in the amount that the corporations pay in terms of taxes". </p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), "It is just a matter of fairness that multinationals don't get off the hook and play around with member states competing with each other offering them the most adequate or the most weak charges in an attempt to capture the concentration of their profits in their own jurisdiction. This is not compatible with everything that we have put toghether in terms of cooperation".

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), (referring to austerity) "You cannot control the expenditure side of the budget and let go the income side of the budget that comes from the contributions of taxpayers but also firms and multinationals. So this is the kind of issue we are addressing. Our proposals are very clear and they are feasible, we just need political will and we need that this agenda goes from the politicians and from the table of the council of ministers into the public debate because it is a matter of democracy and fairness in relation to all citizens of Europe".