Available on the Web since mid-November, the document holds in a few lines. A meeting of the Code of conduct group (business taxation) ” is scheduled, Wednesday, November 22, at 10 o’clock. See you at the Lex, one of the buildings that the Council (the institution representing the member States) is next to place Schuman, the epicenter of the european district of Brussels. This is the most discreet. It hosts the service of translators.
The agenda official ” Code “, as the locals call it his rare insider : a discussion on the tax treatment of patents in France and Italy, a point on the ” international developments “… And, most importantly, the finalisation of the black list of european tax havens.
This list ultrasensitive must be prepared for the Ecofin, the meeting of the finance ministers of the european Union of 5 December. After the emotion of a planetary linked to the revelations of “the Paradise Papers” (which The World participated, with 95 partners of the international Consortium of investigative journalists), the Europe is expected at the turn. Will she finally finger the courts to problems, ones that the super rich are keen to escape the tax ?
The list fuitera-t-it before the 5th December ? We do not know. The Code, which has since a year, is one of the instances and secrets of Brussels. Its transparency obligations are minimal : a report published each semester, almost as unreadable as his orders of the day.
His “minutes” of the meeting are inaccessible, its experts cultivate anonymity. Its current president, Fabrizia Lapecorella, a top official of the Italian ministry of finance, is not involved in any press conference. The Code is a ufo institutional. It is hosted by the Council, but managed intergovernmental. This is a forum where member States can make their “kitchen” tax them, without…
