Germany, France and Spain, alone in the defense of qualified majorities for fiscal policy

Germany, France and Spain, alone in the defense of qualified majorities for fiscal policy

The unanimity of the Twenty-eight that is demanded today to validate any decision supposes a "blockade", regrets Moscovici

  The Venezuelan crisis has been the last and most obvious example that the vote against a single country (in this case Italy) can break the common position and transfer the image of division and weakness to the rest of the world. The unanimity of the Twenty-eight that is required in foreign policy is also imposed on fiscal and economic matters. And there the clearest effect is the blockade . Europe does not advance when it comes to setting taxes on financial transactions, nor in the VAT reform, there is no cohesion in corporate tax and measures such as the application of the so-called 'Google tax', are arbitrated on a free-choice basis after fail again and again the possibility of activating a common strategy.

  That is the reality and the Ministers of Economy and Finance of the Twenty-eight collided once again this Tuesday . On the table they had the proposal of the European Commission to take steps so that the decision making is subject to qualified majorities, which implies that the consent of sixteen States, 65% of the population of the club, would suffice. But the issue is "very sensitive" so it continues in deadlock.

And that the new formulation of the Community Executive has the backing of the 'big'. Bruno Le Maire and Olaf Scholz, economic ministers of Germany and France, insisted on Tuesday the need to relegate "little by little" unanimity . And the Spanish president, Pedro Sanchez, has already positioned himself clearly in that direction just a month ago, in a speech in the Eurocámara marked by the 'more Europe'. But "fiscal sovereignty is paramount for many member states," said Eugen Orlando Teodorovici, head of Public Finance in Romania, the country that holds the EU's temporary presidency.

And so did his colleagues in the Netherlands, Sweden, Luxembourg and Ireland before even entering into a debate that will continue to open in the coming months. Because the objective of the Commission is for the qualified majority to be implemented gradually so that, in a first phase, it allows enabling measures for coordination against tax fraud and tax evasion , a particularly "sensitive" issue, as highlighted by Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the Community Executive, who regretted that today "there are tax records in which it is impossible to move forward because we have to do it at European level."

A "blockade", as defined by the Commissioner responsible for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, which is meaningless because "qualified majority means democracy and, of course, more efficiency".