The European Parliament urges the Commission to take legal measures against Member States that do not apply Community law
Parliament demanded this Thursday to fully investigate the irregularities uncovered by the Pandora papers committed in EU jurisdictions. In a resolution passed with 578 votes in favor, 28 against and 79 abstentions, MEPs indicate what measures the EU must take most urgently to fill the loopholes that allow tax evasion, tax avoidance and large-scale money laundering. They also ask the Commission to take legal action against those Member States that do not properly apply the legislation in force. MEPs focus their criticism on the European heads of government and ministers (in office or retired) named in the Pandora papers.
Parliament records in the resolution the outrage expressed by MEPs in the debate held in plenary on October 6, just two days after the publication of the first revelations of Pandora’s papers.
Get to the bottom
The text includes a call to the EU authorities to thoroughly investigate any irregularities revealed in the Pandora papers committed in their jurisdiction, as well as all the individuals whose names appear in them. MEPs ask the Commission to study the documents to establish whether new legislation is necessary and whether legal action must be taken against any Member State. According to Parliament, the EPPO must also assess whether it is responsible for launching concrete investigations in light of the disclosures.
MEPs condemn in particular the actions of the following EU political figures whose names appear on Pandora’s papers: Andrej Babiš, Czech Prime Minister, Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus, Wopke Hoekstra, Dutch Finance Minister Tony Blair , former British Prime Minister, and John Dalli, who held various ministries in Malta and was a European Commissioner. Also quoted in the text are Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and Milo Đukanović, President of Montenegro.
Parliament urges the Member States and the Commission to redouble their efforts to identify the beneficial owners (real) of the networks of opaque companies and to exchange information about them. MEPs also emphasize that many Member States are behind in implementing current regulations to combat money laundering and tax evasion. The Commission must act against these lagging countries. In addition, the deputies ask the Commission for proposals to regulate the programs that facilitate obtaining citizenship or the right of residence in exchange for investments (“passports or golden visas”) and to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions to identify those responsible politicians and apply stricter due diligence measures.
The resolution states that there is no point in adopting new stricter rules if the current provisions are not properly applied and without better cooperation between the national authorities of the Member States. It also raises an increase in resources in this political area. The Commission should examine whether the national financial reporting units are adequately staffed.
The black list of tax havens
The resolution compares the current black list of tax havens to paper thin, from which even some of the most recalcitrant countries escape. For example, according to the resolution, the British Virgin Islands shelters two-thirds of the opaque companies of Pandora’s papers but they are not even included in the list. MEPs propose a wide range of strategies to improve this list, such as taking into account more typical practices of tax havens or reforming the mechanism for the inclusion of jurisdictions. Earlier this month, MEPs passed a more detailed resolution on the issue.
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