Parliament, Council and Commission negotiators agreed on new EU rules requiring multinational companies to disclose the amount of tax they pay in each EU country, the so-called country-by-country reporting. These new rules will provide the public and tax authorities with more transparency on what – and where - taxes are being paid. final statements by Evelyn REGNER (S&D, AT) and Ibán GARCÍA DEL BLANCO (S&D, ES), co-rapporteurs and by Pedro LOURTIE, Portuguese Presidency Representative.

Brussels

statement

meeting

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

financial transaction tax (T)

REGNER, Evelyn (S&D, AT)

GARCÍA DEL BLANCO, Ibán (S&D, ES)

Transparency trilogue: final statements by Evelyn REGNER (S&D, AT) and Ibán GARCÍA DEL BLANCO (S&D, ES), co-rapporteurs, and Pedro LOURTIE, Portuguese Presidency Representative

Title: Transparency trilogue: final statements by Evelyn REGNER (S&amp;D, AT) and Ib&#225;n GARC&#205;A DEL BLANCO (S&amp;D, ES), co-rapporteurs, and Pedro LOURTIE, Portuguese Presidency Representative

Atmosphere in the meeting room after the deal was struck, 10 shots.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pedro LOURTIE, Portuguese Presidency Representative, What this means is that the union is now clearly the leader, the world leader in terms of corporate transparency that the citizens will will have if this agreement is confirmed, as we expect by the two institutions, will have access to tax information from the very large multinationals. And this is a question of citizenship as well. It's a question of being able to, with the very large multinationals to have that transparency, which is essential for citizens to feel also empowered. So I think that the step that is given with this proposal that has been on the making for a long time is one which will improve, in terms of transparency in the union, but also serve as an example worldwide.

SOUNDBITE (English), Evelyn REGNER (S&amp;D, AT), Co-rapporteur, So these negotiations are in the result, a success, a huge success. Since 2016, since we have all those tax scandals, we are fighting in the European Parliament for transparency. Big multinational companies, they should tell us where they do the profits and where not. How many employees are working there, all those facts and figures in order to draw conclusions that they pay taxes. And what we have right now is a result that says within the European Union they have to reveal all those facts and figures. So much public money right now after Corona is invested. So the multinationals will get a lot of public money. And now we get the information and the basic information of those multinationals.

SOUNDBITE (German), Evelyn REGNER (S&amp;D, AT), Co-rapporteur, From this moment on, light is shed on the situation of all countries within the European Union itself. There are some concerns. There have been some scandals that have directly affected the Union itself and from this moment on, citizens will have the opportunity to know the reality of what is happening in each of the Union's countries and how these big companies behave in each of the Union's countries. And not only here, but also in many of the tax havens that are on the so-called cooperation blacklists and the so-called gray list. So, I think things are noticeably better from this moment, from this agreement, and that this is not a point of arrival. This is a starting point. This is a beginning and we will continue to fight and fight for increased fiscal transparency. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Ib&#225;n GARC&#205;A DEL BLANCO, Co-rapporteur, From this moment, there will not be any more shadows in the tax space inside the European Union and even in many tax havens. So this is a transparency rule and this is a transparency file, it is not a tax itself, a tax rule itself, but I think it will be helpful, absolutely helpful in order to make things better from this moment in advance. And besides this, this is only a journey that is starting, is not the end of anything. This is a milestone, from this ground that is conquered we could reach to another things that we are striving for and we keep going, keep striving for.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ib&aacute;n GARC&Iacute;A DEL BLANCO, Co-rapporteur, From this moment on, light is shed on the situation of all countries within the European Union itself. There are some concerns. There have been some scandals that have directly affected the Union itself and from this moment on, citizens will have the opportunity to know the reality of what is happening in each of the Union's countries and how these big companies behave in each of the Union's countries. And not only here, but also in many of the tax havens that are on the so-called cooperation blacklists and the so-called gray list. So, I think things are noticeably better from this moment, from this agreement, and that this is not a point of arrival. This is a starting point. This is a beginning and we will continue to fight and fight for increased fiscal transparency.