Finance Ministers from the Party of European Socialists, which included Malta’s Edward Scicluna, committed to continue fighting for the closing down of tax havens at their meeting today in Amsterdam during the informal ECOFIN Council. The discussion took place in the context of ‘Panama Papers’.

The meeting focused on measures that would prevent individuals and multinational companies from exploiting loopholes and mismatches in tax systems within the EU. PES Finance Ministers reiterated that the existence of tax havens seriously threatens the sustainability of Member States’ public finances. They demanded that combating tax evasion and aggressive tax planning be one of the EU’s priorities.
Lithuanian Finance Minister and chair of the network, Rimantas Šad?ius, stated: "The release of the Panama Papers confirms the need to step up our actions for tackling global tax dodging. Following this direction, we welcome the Commission’s recent proposal on promoting public country-by-country reporting for multinational enterprises. This is a timely step forward building on the excellent work that Commissioner Moscovici has been carrying out for ensuring tax transparency.

But this is not enough, this fight has to be fought on a global scale in order to seriously limit the capacity of tax haven’s to facilitate money flows. We need a truly international cooperation, led by the European Union. Our aim is to strengthen tax transparency by vigorously promoting the automatic exchange of tax related information. We look forward to the revived Commission’s proposal on a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) that will contribute to strengthening the ability to prevent profit shifting."