Rådsmøde nr. 3736 (økonomi og finans) den 5. december 2019 - Bilag 4: Note vedr. AOB-punkt om EU’s fælles liste over ikke-samarbejdsvillige skattejurisdiktioner på rådsmødet (økonomi og finans) den 5. december 2019

Europaudvalget 2019-20
Rådsmøde 3736 - økofin Bilag 4
Offentligt

Council of the

European Union

Brussels, 3 December 2019

(OR. en)

14699/19

LIMITE

FISC 465

ECOFIN 1093

NOTE

From:

To:

Subject:

General Secretariat of the Council

Council

EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions

- Presentation by the Danish delegation

Delegations will find in Annex a Note by the Danish delegation on the EU list of non-cooperative

tax jurisdictions. This delegation will provide information to ECOFIN on 5 December 2019 (under

non-legislative AOB) on this issue.

14699/19

ECOMP.2.B

AS/AR/df

LIMITE

Rådsmøde nr. 3736 (økonomi og finans) den 5. december 2019 - Bilag 4: Note vedr. AOB-punkt om EU’s fælles liste over ikke-samarbejdsvillige skattejurisdiktioner på rådsmødet (økonomi og finans) den 5. december 2019

ANNEX

The EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions

In recent years, we have taken many important steps to fight tax evasion and tax avoidance. We

have significantly strengthened our tax standards, transparency and information sharing globally

and within the EU.

The EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions marks an important milestone in this work. Since

its launch in 2017, more than 60 jurisdictions have committed to comply with the agreed criteria

and by now half of these jurisdictions have delivered on their commitments. This demonstrates the

leverage of the list. The ongoing discussions in the Code of Conduct Group contribute to a positive

gradual improvement of the criteria, the defensive measures, and the scope of the list and its

leverage. This includes the latest agreement in the Group on strengthening the commitment to

defensive measures towards jurisdictions on the list, as well as the plans to screen additional

jurisdictions and to include a future criteria on beneficial ownership.

Nevertheless, our citizens call for us to continue and intensify our efforts to fight tax evasion. It is

therefore necessary to consider at our political level whether and how

–

within the current

framework and rules applying within the EU - we can set an even higher level of ambition for the

work in the Code of Conduct Group on the list, its criteria and its defensive measures. It is crucial to

clearly signal that we are committed to continuously develop and refine our methods to target those

jurisdictions that profit from enabling tax evasion and avoidance.

We therefore invite the incoming Presidencies of the Council to facilitate political discussions of the

EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and its criteria as well as the processes applied to make

sure they are as effective and ambitious as possible. This will be a useful opportunity to ensure the

appropriate political guidance for the important technical work in the Code of Conduct Group. We

suggest having a political discussion in the ECOFIN in one of our next meetings where a more

comprehensive update is expected on the basis of lapsing deadlines for a number of jurisdictions.

As a basis for the discussion we invite the Code of Conduct Group to evaluate the effectiveness of

the list and to make concrete suggestion on how the criteria and the defensive measures could best

be strengthened.

14699/19

ANNEX

AS/AR/df

ECOMP.2.B

LIMITE

A possible theme for such discussions should be to consider whether the current criteria provide

sufficient protection against tax avoidance and evasion. And what possible improvements could be

feasible and desirable. Furthermore we could take stock of our commitments to the defensive

measures.

At some point, we also need to reflect on whether the standards we apply to ourselves internally

within the EU are as ambitious as our citizens should rightly expect. Do we internally have

sufficient safeguards against tax avoidance and evasion? This is of course another broader and

wider discussions than the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions but an important point to be

made here is that we should continue our work to ensure that any progress within the EU is

transformed into new requirements and criteria for third countries.

14699/19

ANNEX

AS/AR/df

ECOMP.2.B

LIMITE