In an attempt to overcome a deadlock that has lasted for almost two years, the Finnish Council presidency has decided to put the topic of public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) on the Competitiveness Council agenda of 28 November. A background brief from the Council can be accessed here.
This follows a preliminary discussion at the level of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) that took place on 20 November. Member States will be invited to debate and agree on a Council position (general approach) on the public CBCR directive. The text of this proposed general approach was declassified today and can be accessed here. Two outstanding issues remain, and these are detailed in Section III. They relate to the legal basis of the proposal and to the “comply or explain” clause.
According to secretariat information, the positions of Member States are still diverging on this topic and in fact have not changed very much since the last time this proposed directive was seriously discussed. It would therefore seem that:
- 10 Member States are in favour of the proposal: FR, ES, BE, DK, NL, IT, RO, BG, GR, SK
- 7 Member States are either abstaining or have not expressed a view, including DE and UK
- 11 Member States are against the proposal, primarily because they feel that this file should be considered a taxation-related file and therefore be subject to unanimity voting.
The vote in the Competitiveness Council will take place under qualified majority voting rules, meaning that:
- 55% of member states must vote in favour – in practice this means 16 out of 28
- the proposal is supported by Member States representing at least 65% of the total EU population
Result of voting 28/11/2019
The Competitiveness Council (COMPET) which convened today failed to pass the Finnish Presidency compromise approach to the public CBCR proposal. The 16 votes needed to adopt the proposal were not gathered, with Member States like Ireland, Luxemburg, Sweden and Malta leading opposition to the proposal, primarily because they consider this a tax file that should only be handled by finance ministers under unanimity voting rules. The vote continues to leave the public CBCR proposal in a political deadlock.