Proposals to expand the European Union’s resources could end up harming smaller member states like Malta, Labour MEP Alfred Sant has argued.
MEPs voted last month in favour of revising the EU’s system of own resources, as a first step towards identifying new revenue streams through which to finance massive recovery packages intended to help member states overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
The draft text, which was approved by 455 votes in favour, 146 against and 88 abstentions, states that it is necessary to introduce new revenue streams based on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base and calls for the introduction of a digital services tax and a Financial Transaction Tax.
Malta is among the member states opposed to the introduction of such taxes, due to the impact they could have on the country’s financial services sector and tax regime.
The text approved by MEPs, which also calls for the EU to introduce a tax on non-recycled packaging waste among other things, suggests introducing a Financial Transaction Tax as part of what the EU calls “enhanced cooperation”. Enhanced cooperation is an EU mechanism allowing at least nine member states to introduce measures among themselves, without other member states being involved.
The vote means the European Council can now adopt the Own Resources Directive and begin the process to have the deal ratified in each member state.
In a statement on Saturday, Sant said that while the EU needed a lot more money to pay for its COVID-19 recovery plan, the way in which it was going about it was wrong.
“Proposals reflecting EU objectives acknowledged by all, such as the plastic levy agreed upon at Council level, are extremely fit for purpose. Nevertheless, other proposals in the text have been advanced with a regrettable disregard for the damage they would inflict on the economy of individual Member States”, he said.
Had the interests of larger member states been at stake, the approach “would have been more cautious,” he added.
Sant and the Labour Party’s three other MEPs, Josianne Cutajar, Miriam Dalli and Alex Agius Saliba voted against the amended draft council decision, breaking lines with the S&D grouping they belong to. The two Maltese MEPs who form part of the EPP grouping, Roberta Metsola and David Casa, voted in favour.