Carthy opposes EU move to remove tax powers from member states
Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands North West Matt Carthy has spoken out against the EU Commission proposal to end the process of tax proposals being adopted by unanimous voting in the EU Council and move towards ‘qualified majority voting’ on certain tax matters instead.
Speaking during a debate on fair taxation in the European Parliament in Strasbourg this week, Carthy said: “I approach the question of taxation as a strong supporter of both global tax justice and of tax sovereignty for national parliaments.
“I fully support Member States cooperating to set EU-wide rules for tackling cross-border corporate tax avoidance and I have pressed the Irish government to stop facilitating industrial-scale tax avoidance by some of the wealthiest companies in the world.
“But tax justice is not the same as tax harmonisation.
“I am resolutely opposed to the proposals made by the Commission to end unanimous decision-making in the Council on taxation. Let’s be clear what that means – it means that tax policies can be forced on a country against the wishes of the democratically elected government of that state.
“Millions of EU citizens, especially those in the less powerful states, are opposed to shifting towards qualified majority voting on issues such as tax. To do so would further remove economic decision-making powers from ordinary people.
“Such a move would further alienate the people of the EU from EU institutions, when what we need to do is build consensus for tackling tax avoidance together.” ENDS
