Commission, TAXE Documents and Ireland

25.9.2015

Question for written answer E-013137-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Matt Carthy (GUE/NGL)

Earlier this month, the Commission stated that Ireland is using confidentiality laws to block the disclosure of records to the European Parliament committee (TAXE) that has been set up to investigate tax arrangements with multinational corporations.

The Commissioner for economic affairs, Pierre Moscovici, told TAXE that more than half of the Member States he contacted did not give their consent for the relevant documents to be shared. Most, including Ireland, cited confidentiality. Approximately 100 records have been made available, but 25 documents containing information about national positions on potentially harmful tax practices have been withheld.

While taxation must remain under the direct competency of each Member State, the documents concerned are being requested not to interfere with the principle of subsidiarity, but instead to expose multinationals that are abusing the system in order to make extortionate profits. This of course not only negatively affects the national exchequer and public finances in Ireland, but first and foremost the Irish people, who pay the price for low revenue from big multinationals.

In light of this, can the Commission advise as to what actions will be taken in order to ensure that the multinationals that are manipulating tax systems will be held to account and that the establishment of the TAXE committee is more than a mere PR stunt?