Having met with opposition from twelve member states at the EU’s Competitiveness Council in November, the issue of public country-by-country reporting (CbCR) was discussed again at the ECOFIN meeting on 5 December.
Sweden presented its concerns regarding the legal basis of the proposal, which the Commission introduced as a corporate reporting matter to be dealt with by qualified majority voting. The EU Council legal service regards the proposal as a tax matter involving the special legislative procedure, for which unanimity is required.
The Council legal service suggested it might be possible to keep the Commission’s legal basis by modifying or adapting the preamble to the directive, ‘to put the shift more on company law than on tax as it is now’.
The Commission vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, repeated after the meeting that the Commission had no intention of withdrawing the proposal. Speaking for the Finnish presidency, finance minister Mika Lintilä, said it would consult with the legal service and ‘pass the file to the next presidency’, taking over in January.
Having met with opposition from twelve member states at the EU’s Competitiveness Council in November, the issue of public country-by-country reporting (CbCR) was discussed again at the ECOFIN meeting on 5 December.
Sweden presented its concerns regarding the legal basis of the proposal, which the Commission introduced as a corporate reporting matter to be dealt with by qualified majority voting. The EU Council legal service regards the proposal as a tax matter involving the special legislative procedure, for which unanimity is required.
The Council legal service suggested it might be possible to keep the Commission’s legal basis by modifying or adapting the preamble to the directive, ‘to put the shift more on company law than on tax as it is now’.
The Commission vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, repeated after the meeting that the Commission had no intention of withdrawing the proposal. Speaking for the Finnish presidency, finance minister Mika Lintilä, said it would consult with the legal service and ‘pass the file to the next presidency’, taking over in January.
