Comité Económico e Social Europeu
Thematic debate on "Taxation of the Digital Economy", with Rita de la Feria, renowned tax expert (listed in the Global Tax 50, 2015 and 2016) and professor of tax law at the University of Leeds, organised during the ECO Section meeting on Friday, 5 May 2017, at the EESC premises in Brussels.
The European Economic and social Committee is organising the public debate "What future for the euro? Threats and opportunities for stage 2 of deepening EMU". The aim of our public debate is to support the necessary consensus-building on an ambitious roadmap for completing EMU by 2025, as part of a global vision for the future of the European Union.
Given that Europe's priority today is to promote sustainable growth and investment within a fair and better integrated market, the corporate tax reforms package will help to provide a fair and efficient taxation of corporate profits. The EESC is currently drawing up three interlinked opinions on key proposals presented and in this framework the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO) will organise a public hearing on "The Corporate tax reforms package - with focus on Common (Consolidated) Corporate Tax Base".
The EESC supports the Commission's ambition for the European Union to lead the way in the global fight against money laundering and terrorism, in which all stakeholders should join forces. To feed into the political debate and decision making process and to make sure the needs of civil society are duly taken account of, the EESC is organising a public hearing on "The fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion".
This brochure presents the EESC's opinions in the area of taxation and gives an overview of key recommendations. We believe that great efforts are needed to prevent aggressive tax planning behaviour by businesses and non-transparency by Member States to ensure equal treatment of firms and to promote European competitiveness for the benefit of all Europeans.
The recent economic and political developments in Europe are a wake-up call for our leaders to take swifter action in order to strengthen the foundations of our Union, including the fragile political and institutional architecture underpinning the euro, thus ensuring lasting stability and prosperity for the people of Europe.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for governance improvements in the internal market with a view to removing bureaucratic hurdles for business. Its conclusion is that the European Commission, although active in cutting red tape in EU legislation, is not intervening yet in the case of gold-plating, which is over-compliance at the national/regional/local level. A key problem with gold-plating is precisely its tendency to overlap across multiple layers of competence. Gold-plating does happen and in certain cases undermines European competitiveness.
