Economic and Financial Affairs Council, 08/03/2016, 8 March 2016

Main results

Corporate tax avoidance

We have strong support for a political agreement on this directive, which will accurately transpose into EU legislation the OECD standard on country-by-country reporting” Jeroen Dijsselbloem, minister for finance of The Netherlands and president of the Council

The Council agreed its stance, pending the European Parliament's opinion, on a draft directive on the exchange of tax-related information on the activities of multinational companies.

“This is the first step we are taking in our work on the anti-tax-avoidance package”, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, minister for finance of The Netherlands and president of the Council. “We have strong support for a political agreement on this directive, which will accurately transpose into EU legislation the OECD standard on country-by-country reporting.”

Political agreement is subject to one member state consulting its parliament.

The directive will require multinationals to report tax-related information, detailed country-by-country, and requiring national tax authorities to exchange that information automatically.

It covers multinationals with a total consolidated group revenue of at least €750 million, which hold 90% of corporate revenues.

• Press release - Corporate tax avoidance

Code of conduct on business taxation

The Council adopted conclusions on the strengthening of a code of conduct aimed at eliminating measures that can create situations of unfair tax competition.

The code of conduct is used in assessing the harmfulness of tax measures adopted, or that are in the process of being adopted, by the member states. A working group oversees its implementation.

The Council's conclusions foresee an enhancement of the governance, transparency and working methods of the working group.

Efficiency will be improved by speeding up the assessment of potentially harmful tax regimes, with an earlier and more frequent involvement of the Council. Information to the public on the group's ongoing and past work will be enhanced.

The presidency intends a further decision to be taken by the end of June 2016 on the revision of the group's mandate.

• Council conclusions on the code of conduct on business taxation

Economic and fiscal policy

Ministers discussed implementation of country-specific recommendations under the "European Semester", the EU's annual policy monitoring process. The Commission presented reports on the economic policies of the member states, focusing on measures taken to remove barriers to investment.

The Council issued a recommendation on the economic policies of the euro area, enabling due account to be taken of eurozone issues in the 2016 country-specific recommendations.

It also adopted conclusions on fiscal sustainability, identifying the challenges faced by member states as concerns their public finances.

• European Semester (background information)