Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-07-Speech-1-228-000"
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"en.20110307.25.1-228-000"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of the Commission, I would like to thank the European Parliament, and especially the Committee on Development, for this report.
I sincerely want to thank Parliament for your support and your commitment on these issues. I am convinced that much progress can be made to strengthen tax governance and I am glad to see that these topics have also been included in the agendas of the G20 and the G8.
I am pleased to see that Mrs Eva Joly’s report highlights, and gives added strength to, the message of the Commission’s communication on tax and development. It also sets very ambitious targets and provides powerful guidance for the European Union to strengthen revenue mobilisation in developing countries. Domestic resource mobilisation is central for sustainable growth, poverty reduction, good governance and the provision of public goods needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We need to improve synergies between tax and development policies and assist developing countries in building better tax systems and administrations.
We face a serious problem. I was personally impressed by your figures stating that the amount of illicit outflows is about ten times the amount of aid money going into developing countries. This is really striking.
So we must work simultaneously at two complementary levels. First, we need to support effective domestic tax systems and, secondly, we need to work towards a transparent, cooperative and fair international tax environment to help developing countries fight against tax evasion and harmful tax competition.
Your report calls on the Commission firstly to take better account of the impact of trade liberalisation and, secondly, not to be limited to the OECD principles in the fight against tax evasion and harmful tax competition. I would like to refer to these challenges.
Concerning the first matter, I can assure you that we are fully committed to supporting successful fiscal transition through increased support for capacity building, demand-driven regional and international capacity development initiatives, and better donor coordination at EU and international levels.
Concerning the second matter, the Commission considers tax evasion and harmful tax competition as major obstacles to domestic resource mobilisation. Therefore, we are helping developing countries to develop capacities to address these challenges and also promoting better international cooperation in tax matters.
A lot of work has already been undertaken since the adoption of our Communication. Concrete action has been made possible by the Parliament’s financial support. Your 2010 allocation of EUR 708 000 has allowed us to fund a series of important activities in order to promote tax governance. These activities include technical seminars of the African Tax Administration Forum, support to the extractive industries, transparency initiatives and the financing of a side event at the United Nations on domestic resource mobilisation. We will also provide technical assistance to implement tax information exchange agreements.
Moreover, the Commission is preparing a Communication to assess the feasibility of introducing a country-by-country reporting requirement into EU legislation. We had a public consultation, which ended last January, and now we will continue with an impact assessment on this important issue. This could help developing countries to combat tax evasion more effectively."@en1
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