EPSU has been a strong supporter of an EP enquiry committee with sufficient human and material resources as well as legal backup, to crack down on what has become institutionalised tax dumping in Europe. “Leaders of the largest groups should have at least allowed a plenary vote on a topic that has become a major public concern. Political tinkering has no place in this debate. It is a bad decision for citizens, workers and SMEs who have had enough of wealthy tax dodgers who can afford to pay their fair share of tax but do not want to. It is a bad decision for tax collectors who need the political will to investigate complicated corporate tax avoidance schemes. Instead they will continue facing high workload, low political support and very uncertain results. It is a bad decision for the European Parliament who missed the opportunity to exercise its investigation power in full transparency. It is a good decision for tax thieves who will not be held publicly accountable” says Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary. “ A special tax committee is not a sound alternative to an enquiry committee.” concludes Mr Goudriaan. Note for editors: EPSU has supported the establishment of an EP investigation committee as proposed by the Greens in cooperation with the GUE group for the following reasons: - To scrutinise the conformity of the tax rulings in Luxembourg and in the rest of the EU with EC state aid rules and the 1977/2011 directive that binds member states to a spontaneous exchange of tax ruling information; - To examine why governments and the Commission let those rulings prosper at the expense of the ordinary tax payer and law-abiding companies; - To keep the much needed popular momentum to achieve real policy change including the end of tax rulings whose sole purpose is to avoid paying tax and the implementation of EC recommendations on tax havens and corporate aggressive tax planning (December 2012). EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC and comprises 8 million public service workers from over 265 trade unions; EPSU organises workers in the energy, water and waste sectors, health and social services and local, regional and central government, in all European countries including the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood. EPSU is the recognized regional organization of Public Services International (PSI). For more information please go to: www.epsu.org