The opinion, drafted by Roberts ZÄ«le (ECR, LV) was adopted
with 568 in favour to 56 against and 56 abstentions. It
provides the European Parliament’s position on the
Commission proposal amending the regulation establishing
measures to strengthen administrative cooperation regarding
VAT.
Stronger cooperation
Most notably, the opinion seeks to facilitate
administrative enquires which one member state may wish to
conduct in another member state. To this end, the
changes to the Commission text remove the grounds upon
which a member state requested to investigate a matter may
refuse. Moreover, the authority requesting the
investigation should be able to participate in it.
Cooperation should also become more systematic between
Eurofisc, OLAF and Europol. For this reason, the
opinion provides that Eurofisc should have the possibility
of directly requesting information from OLAF and Europol.
EU-wide statistics on VAT fraud
The opinion requires member states and the commission to
establish a common system of collecting statistics on VAT
fraud going on within the EU and publish national estimates
of VAT losses resulting from fraud, as well as estimates
for the whole of the EU.
Further improvements
Other improvements which the opinion seeks to provide to
the Commission proposal include:
- allowing the Commission to conduct visits in member
states to evaluate for itself how well the administrative
cooperation arrangements are working there.
- requiring all member states to adopt targets for
reducing the percentage of late replies for administrative
cooperation
- widening the scope for which administrative cooperation
can be requested, to include not only the identification of
persons suspected of fraud but also of those undertaking
serious misconduct.
Next steps
It is not for the national ministers within the Council to
deliberate on the matter, considering the proposals of the
European Parliament and ultimately taking a decision.
