They warn that if there is no agreement within the EU in the coming weeks, their governments will adopt the measure in 2023
The economy ministers of the five major EU countries met this Friday to announce their commitment to apply the 15% minimum to corporate taxes. In a joint statement, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands warn that if an agreement is not reached within weeks, they are prepared to implement it without waiting for the rest of the member states.
They hope in this way to circumvent Hungary’s veto, which has been delaying the measure for months. The minimum percentage of 15% was in fact one of the main objectives of the French Presidency. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire assured during the informal meeting with his colleagues in Prague that France “rejects” the Hungarian blockade and believes that “it is time” to implement alternatives to ensure the measure.
Le Maire presented the document together with the ministers of the other signatory countries, including the first vice president, Nadia Calviño. In the document presented Friday, the five countries claim to be “ready to implement the global minimum effective tax by 2023” by “all legal means”. The Spanish vice president, for her part, assured that Spain is “strongly committed” to setting a minimum at European level “as soon as possible” and that urgent progress is being made on fiscal changes in the face of the Hungarian “blockade”.
With the EU suffering the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Calviño stressed that “we need to make sure that our tax systems are fair and that big corporations also contribute to the costs of the war.”
German minister Christian Linder went further by assuring that his country is willing to transpose the minimum 15% rate into its national law. However, he noted that Germany prefers a coordinated approach across the bloc. An opinion that was also supported by the heads of the Italian and Dutch economy who called for continuing to work at the European level and to avoid the “selective erosion” of the agreements.
Source: La Verdad
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