Finance Minister Edward Scicluna today expressed disappointment that the proposed European Anti-Tax-Avoidance directive was not accompanied by an impact assessment which would have indicated the effect on Member states and the EU as a whole.

Speaking at an Ecofin meeting of EU Finance Ministers in Brussels, Prof. Scicluna said the reasons put forward in the Commission’s report for not having such an assessment were not satisfactory. In its absence, he said, the Maltese government was commissioning an impact assessment for the country.

Prof. Scicluna said that if the Council really wanted to make rapid progress it should focus on blatant cases of tax evasion and not interfere with domestic issues. He stated that Malta was supportive of measures which were aimed at preventing corporate tax avoidance, however, certain elements in the corporate tax package were beyond what was necessary to prevent abuse and achieve this objective.

The minister also drew attention to the risk some aspects of the proposal could have on the competitiveness of EU and its member states.

During the meeting, Finance Ministers also discussed measures to prevent terrorist financing; the state of play on the implementation of the Banking Union and adopted Budget Guidelines for 2017.

In connection with the financing of terrorism, Minister Scicluna noted Malta’s support for an action plan issued by the European Commission on February 2, underlining the importance of achieving rapid progress on the legislative proposals made.