S&D Group negotiators for the public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) file, Evelyn Regner and Ibán García del Blanco stated:
“We are deeply disappointed that EU governments were not able to reach agreement on public country-by-country reporting today due to a blocking minority in the competitiveness council. It is simply unacceptable that some member states hide behind legalistic aspects to prevent progress on tax transparency, which citizens and parliamentarians have been demanding for years.
"The purpose of this law is very clear: we want to increase corporate transparency by enabling citizens and civil-society organisations worldwide to follow the money. The proposal will ensure that taxes are paid where profits are made, helping to provide adequate revenue for public services and benefiting the wider economy. Transparency is the key to fighting tax evasion and profit shifting.
"Governments will have to explain to their citizens why they have to pay taxes while big multinationals like Amazon and Starbucks continue to get away with paying zero taxes.
"We Socialist and Democrats have been leading the drive for corporate and tax transparency and we will keep up the fight for tax justice.”
Note to editor:
Countries blocking the adoption of a general approach: AT HR CY CZ EE HU IE LV LU MT SI SE with DE abstaining.
