Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 9 March 2022 - Strasbourg

Fair and simple taxation supporting the recovery strategy (continuation of debate)

  Dragoş Pîslaru, on behalf of the Renew Group. – Mr President, the European economy has suffered for two years from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, and now it will need to further adjust to strategic choices made to protect our citizens and our values against autocrats that violate peaceful order and international law.

Against all these challenges, we need a strong fiscal policy response that can encompass the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of all 27 national tax systems. This can be achieved through better digitalisation of national public administration in order to reduce the VAT gap and to improve tax collection and information sharing across the Union. Stronger support for our SMEs; it is unthinkable right now for them to face the extra tax burden and the unnecessary red tape when they represent 99 % of businesses in the Union and create two out of three private sector jobs. Better use of the Fiscalis programme, which offers EUR 269 million to national tax authorities to cooperate better to combat tax fraud, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. Strengthen the EU’s network of anti-fraud experts, Eurofisc, and empower them with sufficient resources to effectively carry out risk analysis and coordinate investigations on VAT fraud.

This is how the Renew Europe Group envisages the action plan on fair and simple taxation supporting the EU recovery, well reflected in the Parliament position, for which I would like to thank our rapporteur, Luděk Niedermayer, and all the other shadow rapporteurs.

But no action plan is possible if fiscal policies are a mere reflection of our political beliefs. They should be a portrait of our current reality, and the truth is that today we need to better protect the Union’s financial interests. This requires flexibility and effectiveness. Therefore, Renew Europe believes that the Conference on the Future of Europe should represent a good opportunity for us to explore, with our citizens, the decision-making process used for taxation policies.