Speeches

Madam President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission! I would like to focus in particular on micro-enterprises, because it is the very small companies in particular that are coming under increasing pressure. Every bookstore, every bakery, every tavern pays more taxes than the big companies. Because micro-enterprises cannot fix it by tax shifts, complicated legal constructs, that it somehow ultimately turns out the way they would like it to. You can't just avoid taxes and get more profit. And that is why I am pleased with yesterday's Commission proposal for better taxation of companies, BEFIT for short. BEFIT and the SME relief package are complementary. BEFIT should now uniformly regulate the taxation of the big, the huge corporations, so that everyone finally pays their fair share of taxes.

I am very happy to accept this proposal, as the results of the votes are scarce, and from now on I will have the amendments voted electronically.

As we have quite a long list of those who wish to participate as speakers in the catch-the-eye procedure, I will close that procedure right now as we already have a long list of speakers.

Before our next speaker, I would like to remind everybody – Mr Rzońca, you were quite shouting before – that in this plenary everybody should listen to each other, so please do that.

We will continue with our speakers list, but before starting I would like to remind everyone to stick to their speaking time, otherwise I will have to stop them. So please be disciplined.

I would just like, at the start of this debate, to remind all Members present here to show respect for those who are speaking, and not to shout.

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement on Ukrainian grain exports after Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (2023/2842(RSP)).

The next item is the debate on the statement by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on 50 years since the murder of Allende and the Coup in Chile: democracy and sovereignty (2023/2850(RSP)). Before I give the floor to the High Representative, I would like to inform Members that there will only be one round of political group speakers for this debate, so that means there will be no catch-the-eye, and no blue-cards will be accepted.

The next item is the debate on the report by Markus Pieper, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the Renewable Energy Directive (COM(2021)0557 – C9-0329/2021 – 2021/0218(COD)) (A9-0208/2022).

The next item is the debate on the report by Gabriele Bischoff, on behalf of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, on amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability (2023/2095(REG)) (A9-0262/2023).

The next item is the debate on the report by Milan Brglez, on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, on surface water and groundwater pollutants (COM(2022)0540 – C9-0361/2022 – 2022/0344(COD)) (A9-0238/2023).

The next item is the debate on report by Michael Gahler and Zdzisław Krasnodębski, on behalf of the Committee on Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) (COM(2022)0349 – C9-0287/2022 – 2022/0219(COD)) (A9-0161/2023).

Mr President, Commissioner, Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, Paradise Papers, CumEx, LuxLeaks, Swiss leaks, leak after leak. And what is the common denominator there? There are tax schemes, schemes for avoiding tax payments, and the frequency of occurrence of these leaks shows one thing: the system is not working properly. There is a lack of transparency. Nineteen months ago, we adopted a groundbreaking directive, namely the Directive on Public Country—by—Country Reporting. This very directive will finally bring us more transparency in the corporate world, and this very directive will bring light into the corporate jungle of tax evasion and tax avoidance. We, as the European Union, are pioneers here. We are leading with a good example. On 22 June this year, the deadline for transposing the Directive into national law expired, and almost exactly two weeks ago a letter was leaked to us. It was a letter from the European Commission under the title ‘Gold Plating Information Letter on Public Country—by—Country Reporting’. In this letter, the Commission provides what appears to be guidance on how Member States should implement the Country—by—Country Reporting Directive, and in fact, this letter advises Member States to limit transparency, to limit tax transparency. These guidelines provided in the letter aren’t technical guidance. These guidelines have political influence, and this constitutes a transgression. These so—called guidelines are clearly overshooting the mandate of the European Commission and behind the back of us, the co—legislators. The travesty here is that the Directive on Public Country—by—Country Reporting is a transparency directive, and the Commission appears to try to limit transparency. So the question inevitably arises as to what other directives the Commission has done this with, which is why we want to have clear answers.

The next item is the debate on the report by Vladimír Bilčík and Nathalie Loiseau, on behalf of the Special Committee on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation, and the strengthening of integrity, transparency and accountability in the European Parliament, on recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (2023/2034(INI)) (A9—0215/2023).

Mr Timmermans, thank you very much for wrapping up this way. Thanks to everybody who has been participating in the debate. We have a lot of work ahead of us. The debate is closed. Written statements (Rule 171)

Madam President, Commissioner, Secretary of State! We can't afford the rich, we can't afford the super-rich anymore. Worldwide, there are 3,000 billionaires who collectively own about €11 trillion in total assets. €11 trillion – these are sums that no one can imagine. That's a total of 12 zeros, which is simply unbelievable. And so let me briefly explain what would be possible with this sum. According to a UN report, the report of the United Nations Environment Programme, we need 7 trillion euros to seriously tackle humanity's biggest crisis: The climate crisis. Not only can we tackle and fight them, but we must tackle them! And how do we do that? With a tax on wealth, because through taxes we steer our society, we steer our future, we steer the future of our children. That is why it is appropriate to say and to do so: Tax the rich.

The next item is the debate on the report by Paulo Rangel, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, on the 2022 Commission Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (2022/2200(INI)) (A9-0229/2023).