Activities of Damien CARÊME related to 2022/2080(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations
Opinions (1)
OPINION on lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations
Amendments (39)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2 a (new)
Citation 2 a (new)
— having regard to the European Court of Auditors' annual report entitled 'Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2021',
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2 b (new)
Citation 2 b (new)
— having regard to the decision of the European Ombudsman of 16 May 2022 on how the Commission the European Commission handles “revolving door” situations involving its staff members (OI/1/2021/KR),
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas 2.94 terabytes of data were leaked to the ICIJ and shared with media partners around the world; whereas some of the files date back to the 1970s, but most of those reviewed by the ICIJ were created between 1996 and 2020; whereas the new data leak reportedly concerns more than 330 political figures and public officials from almost 100 countries, including 35 current or former heads of state or government;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for cooperstronger cooperation and coordination between the authorities responsible for combating tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist financing, and serious organised crime at both national and European level; urges Member States and EU authorities to devote substantial efforts to recover money acquired by illegal or unfair means; regrets the fact that the information obtained by tax authorities in the context of Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and repealing Directive 77/799/EEC1 cannot be used for criminal investigation and prosecution purposes; _________________ 1 OJ L 64, 11.3.2011, p. 1.
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the Pandora Papers are the latest major data leak to expose the inner workings of the offshore financial world, following on from Lux Leaks in 2014, Swiss Leaks in 2015, the Panama Papers in 2016, the Paradise Papers in 2017, Mauritius Leaks in 2019, Luanda Leaks and the FinCEN Files in 2020, together with Lux Letters in 2021;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. DRegrets that the Council of EU Finance Ministers removed the Seychelles from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions two days after the publication of the Pandora Papers; urges the Council to adapt a comprehensive reform of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes to systematically cover countries that unjustly offer low tax rates to corporations and high-net worth individuals, contributing to tax avoidance in their home countries, and increasing risks of money laundering; urges the Commission to additionally monitor European countries severely and initiate infringement proceedings when found to not respect the listing criteria of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions; deeply regrets the lack of a strong beneficial ownership criterion for the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions; calls on the Economic and Financial Affairs Council to come forward with a strong beneficial ownership criterion;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the activities revealed in the Pandora Papers include the creation of shell companies, foundations and trusts for the following purposes: buying property, yachts, jets and life insurance anonymously, making investments and transferring money between bank accounts, avoiding taxes and committing financial crimes, including money laundering;
Amendment 20 #
Bc. whereas the EU's legislative response to the Pandora Papers was weak and ministers were very late in adopting the much-needed reform of the 1997 EU code of conduct on business taxation;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas there have been few European legislative initiatives in the area of harmful tax practices that attract high net worth individuals or luxury assets, such as yachts, private jets, works of art, etc;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the role of international investigative journalism and whistleblowers in exposing tax avoidance and evasion, corruption, organised crime and money laundering; deems it necessary to further protect the confidentiality of the sources of investigative journalism, including whistleblowers; looks forward to the Commission's report, due to be published in December 2023, on the implementation of the 2019 EU Whistleblowers Directive; calls on the Commission, in that regard, to consult stakeholders on improvements to make to the directive;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls for tax havens to be automatically registered in the EU’s anti- money laundering list of ‘high-risk’ third countries; calls for the United Arab Emirates to be identifirecommends that states and entities where oligarchs, millionaires and companies hide their funds are included in such list; welcomes that Commissioner Mairead McGuinness announced his intention to propose to add the United Arab Emirates to the list of ‘high risk’ countries; calls for the United Arab Emirates to be urgently listed as a high- risk third country, also in light of recent media revelations that this country facilitated money laundering at a grand scale and is actively used by Russian oligarchs to escape EU sanctions;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Recommends the EU to subject lawyers among the obliged entities where their legal advice, including in relation to tax matters, is knowingly provided or used by the client for the purpose of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Asks the Commission to publish a list of assets frozen or confiscated by each Member State following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to share more information on the work conducted by the ‘Freeze and Seize’ Task Force; urges the Commission to provide precise information on Member States’ progress in repealing or withdrawing citizenship and residence permits granted on the basis of financial investment to Russian and Belarusian nationals subject to EU restrictive measures; calls for a total ban on suchresidence by investment schemes across the EU;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for strictUrges the Commission and EU agencies to adopt stricter guidelines for officials who want to take up positions outside of the EU institutions after their service or during leave on personal grounds, given the alarming report of the European Court of Auditors2a and the European Ombudsman’s decision OI/1/2021/KR of 16 May 2022 on how the European Commission manages ‘revolving- doors’ rules for high-ranking EU officials. ’ moves of its staff members; calls on the EU institutions to make sure that restrictions imposed on former senior staff members or staff members on leave for personal grounds are effectively shared with and enforced by the new employer; calls on the Commission not to approve requests from former senior staff members to take up activities in the private sector when reservations exist as to possibility to mitigate the potential risks deriving from the moves; _________________ 2a “Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2021”, European Court of Auditors, 27 October 2022.
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Regrets the fact that only 10 Member States have passed legislation to transpose the Whistleblowers Directive7, 15 are still in the process of doing so, and two have taken no or minimal action; calls on the Member States that have not yet done so to urgently transpose the directive into their national law; _________________ 7 Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, OJ L 305, 26.11.2019, p. 17.
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Highlights that without the courage of whistleblowers, and the work of journalists, tax evasion, corruption, and money laundering could continue unchecked; stresses the need for a stronger protection of whistleblowers and the work of journalists, including from spyware attacks; regrets the fact that only ten Member States have passed legislation to transpose the directive 2019/1937/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law3a, while 15 are still in the process of doing so, and two have taken no or minimal action; calls on the European Commission to open infringement procedures against the remaining Member States. _________________ 3a OJ L 305, 26.11.2019, p. 17.
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Urges the Commission to provide detailed information on the progress made by Member States in repealing or withdrawing the citizenship or residence permits of Russian or Belarusian individuals who have obtained their status through investment; calls for an EU-wide blanket ban on residence by investment schemes ('golden visas');
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Deplores the lack of transparency from the Commission and the Members with regard to the progress made in freezing and seizing the assets of sanctioned persons; urges the Member States and the EU authorities to make a genuine effort to recover illicit money; calls on the Commission to publish a list of assets that have been frozen or confiscated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Deplores the conflicts of interest of senior staff members, including EU ministers, involving illegally obtained property, interests in fossil fuel companies or assets in tax havens revealed by the Pandora Papers and recent media investigations, including those of former Czech Prime Minister Andris Babiš and the current French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher; points out that the family members of politically exposed persons (PEPs), including their children, may be involved in fraud and tax evasion cases and are therefore subject to anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing legislation; Highlights the importance of safeguarding high standards of integrity, honesty and responsibility among public officials in the EU, including in the Member States; calls on the Member States to ensure that they have measures and systems with enough human and financial resources in place requiring public officials to declare any outside activities, employment, investments, assets and substantial gifts or benefits which may give rise to a conflict of interest with respect to their functions as public officials; highlights the importance of having systems in place to report and verify this information and independently assess conflicts of interest when they arise; stresses the need for dissuasive sanctions;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Deplores the shortcomings in the current rules highlighted by the European Court of Auditors and the European Ombudsman; Urges the EU institutions, and in particular the Commission, to adopt stricter rules for officials seeking to take up posts outside the EU institutions after their service or during leave on personal grounds calls on the EU institutions to make sure that restrictions imposed on former senior staff members or staff members on leave for personal grounds are actually shared with and enforced by their new employer; calls on the EU institutions not to approve requests from former senior staff members to take up activities in the private sector when reservations exist with regard to the possibility to mitigate the potential risks deriving from the moves; calls on the international institutions financed by the Member States or the EU budget to follow the same rules as the EU institutions with regard to officials seeking to take up posts outside the institutions or during leave on personal grounds;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Is concerned about the recent departure of the former OECD tax director to the private sector; Calls on the Member States and the Commission to put pressure on the OECD to introduce clear cooling-off periods and strict policies on revolving door situations;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. recommends that lawyers be added to the list of obliged entities in anti-money laundering legislation where their legal advice, including tax advice, is knowingly provided or used by the client for the purposes of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to extend reporting requirements under the sixth Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC6)12 to cross-border arrangements for the management of assets of clients who are natural persons; calls on the Commission to present a proposal to allow information obtained by tax authorities under DAC6 to be used for criminal investigation and prosecution purposes; _________________ 12 Council Directive (EU) 2018/822 of 25 May 2018 amending Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements, OJ L 139, 5.6.2018, p. 1.
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Notes with concern that the latest results of the peer review of the Global Forum on the legal implementation of the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (CRS) and, for the first time, the results of the first reviews of the effectiveness of the practical implementation of CRS indicate that not all Member States are fully compliant or on track; notes that the following Member States are not delivering the expected results: Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, France, Romania and Croatia; calls on the Commission to monitor the Member States closely and to launch infringement procedures until all Member States are fully compliant;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Calls for countries on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes to be automatically included on the EU’s anti-money laundering list of ‘high-risk’ third countries;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Observes, in parallel, a growing trend for countries, and EU Member States in particular, to adopt legal frameworks designed to attract high-net-worth individuals, foreign pensioners and highly skilled workers to invest or live in their territory, notably granting them generous tax benefits and exemptions which do not apply to nationals, in addition to offering golden visas and selling citizenship opportunities; condemns the fact that the Commission has taken no action in these areas for a year; calls on the Commission to identify all harmful tax practices distorting competition outside the area of corporate taxation in the EU;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Warns against the impact of teleworking on personal income tax and tax residence in the EU; calls on the Commission to take the necessary legislative measures to harmonise or better coordinate the tax residence of individuals and self-employed persons in the EU and the cross-border implications of personal income tax; notes that personal income tax is the biggest source of tax revenue for most EU Member States;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11b. Is concerned by the increasing number of harmful tax regimes in the EU which aim to attract ‘digital nomads’; notes that some tax regimes lead to zero tax rates on earned income with significant potential for abuse which erodes the tax bases of other countries; notes that Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Italy and Cyprus all have specific tax regimes to attract digital nomads; calls on the Commission to assess the harmful impact of these tax regimes on the single market and Member States’ revenues;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11c. Calls on the Commission to assess the advantageous tax regimes in the EU, as in Portugal, which aim to attract crypto-assets; notes that such tax regimes can cause significant distortions of the single market and encourage more speculative behaviour, thereby undermining the stability of the financial sector;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is concerned that there is considerable scope for harmful competition in this field and widening social and economic inequalities, as tax-induced mobility is high among income- and wealth-rich taxpayers13; asks the Commission and the Member States to consider an ‘Inequalities Contribution’ as a new own resource; suggests that the ‘Inequalities Contribution’ impose on the Member States a national contribution based on the share of the total national income held by the richest 10%; _________________ 13 European Parliament Directorate- General for Internal Policies, Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies, Harmful Practices and Competition in the Area of Personal Income and Wealth Taxation, January 2022.
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take the lead in the OECD, and in particular in the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework, in order to create a level playing field in the taxation of capital gains and to limit harmful tax practices aimed at attracting wealthy individuals, digital nomads and luxury assets;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Is deeply concerned that the United State allows non-US citizens to enjoy financial secrecy; calls on the Commission and the Member States to enter into fresh negotiations with the US within the framework of the OECD in order to achieve total reciprocity within an agreed and strengthened CRS framework;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Notes that some Member States have reduced their capital gains taxes to zero per cent, giving wealthy individuals numerous opportunities for tax planning; calls for an adequate and proportional minimum tax on capital gains in the EU;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Recalls that Article 116 TFEU can be used to combat harmful tax practices that distort competition in the EU through the ordinary legislative procedure;
Amendment 126 #
Use of shell companies and, trusts and the exchange of information withreal estate assets and the fight against tax evasion in jurisdictions that figure prominently in the Pandora Papers
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Welcomes the Commission proposal for a Council directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU14; calls on the Council to swiftly adopt the proposal once Parliament has submitted its opinion; notes with concern that some Member States, such as Luxembourg, are reducing the scope of the proposal, including by extending the exhaustive list of exclusions; notes also that some Member States want to limit the proposal to a simple exchange of information by removing the possibility, which is necessary, of introducing penalties, and without consequences for tax residence; urges the Member States to adopt an ambitious proposal; calls on the Commission to withdraw the proposal if the Member States dilute the text too much; _________________ 14 COM(2021)0565.
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Is deeply disappointed by the failure of finance ministers to adoptWelcomes the recent adoption of the much-needed reform of the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation on 7 December 2021, after several unsuccessful attempts; condemns Hungary and Estonia, in particular, for blocking the reformat the ECOFIN meeting in November; notes that this is the first revision of the Code of Conduct since 1997; deeply regrets that after 25 years the revision remains limited and lacking in ambition; condemns the previous vetos of the reform of the Code of Conduct by some Member States;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Deplores, in particular, the Council’s lack of willingness to agree on the forthcoming transparency criterion with regard to ultimate beneficial ownershipNotes that the EU list of non- cooperative jurisdictions could be a powerful tool for imposing the necessary high tax standards on third countries; notes, however, that the criteria remain too weak and too focused on corporate income taxation; deplores, in particular, the Council’s lack of willingness to agree on the forthcoming transparency criterion with regard to ultimate beneficial ownership; urges the Council to adapt a comprehensive reform of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in order to systematically cover countries that unfairly offer low tax rates to wealthy companies and individuals, thereby contributing to tax evasion in their countries of origin and increasing the risk of money laundering;
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Notes that real estate has been widely used for money laundering and tax evasion purposes, as revealed by the Pandora Papers; notes, furthermore, that real estate taxation in the EU is not at all coordinated; notes with concern the sharp increase in real estate prices in the EU and the financialisation of housing; is concerned about the potential distortive effect of real estate investment funds, which are largely based in Luxembourg; calls on the Commission to bring forward an action plan on how to improve coordination of real estate taxation in the EU and to assess the impact of low-tax regimes on the financialisation of the housing sector;