Rast

The EESC welcomes the new action plan on Capital Markets Union (CMU) and approves all of the 16 actions proposed by the Commission, but stresses the importance of prioritising and coordinating the initiatives (with concrete milestones to measure progress), emphasises those that it deems most essential and makes targeted complementary proposals. The EESC argues for two key priorities: 1) to improve the efficiency of the CMU by creating the European Single Access point, by applying a single rule-book and by simplifying withholding tax relief at source procedures and 2) implement proposals aimed at facilitating a shift long-term savings towards long-term investments.

The EESC proposes launching a European pact to effectively combat tax fraud, evasion and avoidance and money laundering. The Committee calls on the European Commission to promote a political initiative involving national governments and the other European institutions in achieving this goal, fostering the consensus needed for this and involving civil society. Cooperation between Member States should be the main pillar of the pact. The Committee urges the European institutions and the Member States to provide the financial and human resources required for the effective implementation of existing European legislation and to agree on a commitment to adopt all necessary new legislative and administrative measures to effectively combat tax offences and bad practices, money laundering and the activities of tax havens. This requires permanent evaluation of the outcome of implementing each measure.

The EESC strongly supports the Commission's proposal – Next Generation EU – as a specific tool for a quick and effective recovery.

The EESC takes a very positive view of the Commission's two main decisions:

1. to introduce an extraordinary financial recovery instrument as part of the multiannual financial framework
2. to raise common debt, which will be repaid over a long period of time, and prevent the extraordinary financial burden from falling directly on the Member States in the short run.

The EESC strongly welcomes the fact that the newly proposed instrument should be closely coordinated with the European Semester process, and furthermore welcomes the Commission's proposal to introduce additional genuine own resources based on different taxes (revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System, digital taxation, large companies' revenues).