Malta along with several other EU countries faced a backlash in the European Parliament (EP) on Monday evening after being labelled by various MEPs as being tax havens.

During a debate about an EP Tax3 committee report identifying seven EU countries as having tax haven characteristics, Maltese MEPs fended off calls for common tax rules.

Labour MEP Alfred Sant slammed what he dubbed as “tax populism”.

Dr Sant lamented what he termed as a “bias” against smaller member states in the EP financial crimes’ committee report.

He said the report took a one size fits all approach and disregarded the fact that tax flexibility was the only remaining competitive tool for small EU countries.

PN MEP David Casa also countered the onslaught by MEPs demanding tax harmonisation.

Mr Casa said that several proposals coming from the left would limit a country’s flexibility on taking decisions on their tax systems.

During the debate, Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner responsible for taxation, called for unanimity on tax matters in Council to be abolished.

Instead, tax matters should be decided by a qualified majority, Mr Moscovici said.

Spanish MEP Miguel Urbán Crespo questioned when the Commission would name and shame Malta and Luxembourg as tax havens.

Mr Urbán Crespo said “astronomical” amounts of tax were dodged thanks to loopholes in EU countries.

German MEP Werner Langen said no progress would be made as long as member states had the ability to block a move towards a common tax base.

The European Parliament will tomorrow vote on the Tax3 committee resolution, which, among other things, calls on a freeze of golden visa schemes.

On the Malta front, the Tax3 resolution also calls for a joint investigation team to address serious doubts about the independence of any ongoing investigations on 17 Black, with the support of Europol and Eurojust.