German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday said he supported ending vetoes for European Union countries in the areas of foreign policy and taxation to speed up joint decision-making.
As new members joined the European Union, Scholz said he "proposed a gradual transition to majority voting in common foreign policy, but also in other areas, such as tax policy".
The European Commission early in 2019 kick-started a debate on reforming decision-making for areas of EU taxation policy, which currently requires unanimity among member states.
Malta and a number of other small states have traditionally opposed any move towards tax harmonisation on an EU level.
Then Finance Minister Edward Scicluna had told Times of Malta at the time that he believed “the veto removal regarding taxation in the EU is essentially a red herring”.
Amid global calls for tax harmonisation, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana last April announced that a new tax regime would be in place by 2025, in a major overhaul of the current system.
He said the time had come to revamp the financial services industry by putting in place a new corporate tax regime to replace the existing one, which he said was drawn up over 20 years ago by then finance minister John Dalli.