The proposal from Gianni Pittella, the president of the Socialists and Democrats Group, to set up a 'special committee' to look into all cases of tax avoidance and tax evasion in Europe, was approved today by the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament. This move comes after deadlock following the negative opinion from the European Parliament's legal service over the LuxLeaks investigation proposed by the Greens.
S&D Group president Gianni Pittella said:
"We have defended the right of the European citizens to be informed on tax fraud in Europe. Thanks to our proposal, a special committee will be set up to examine the Luxleaks case but also to examine all cases of tax avoidances and tax evasion in Europe more generally. This is a model which has already been successfully tried with the temporary committee on the CIA's alleged transportation and illegal detention of prisoners.
"This proposal – backed by all the major political groups, with no votes against – will be able to overcome the deadlock created after the European Parliament's legal service issued its negative opinion on the Greens' initiative.
"What is more important, this special committee will be in a position to propose legislative solutions.
"Finally, our proposal will work closely with the legislative report to be provided by the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee. Our aim is not to get stuck in the past, but to focus on preventing further cases of tax evasion and fraud in the future.
"The proposal will largely build on the roadmap already set out by the Socialists and Democrats back in 2013 with the Mojca Kleva Kekuš report and follows a long campaign for #TaxJustice, led by the S&D Group."
