Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1115758
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 MAY 2019 YANNICK PACE THE Nationalist Party's MEPs voted against Malta's interests in an amendment that could have assuaged a resolution that took Malta, among other mem- ber states, to task over finan- cial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance, Labour MEP Miriam Dalli said. Addressing a press conference at the party's headquarters, Dalli and Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services Silvio Schem- bri said the PN's vote had "en- dangered the livelihood of thou- sands of people in Malta". The PN MEPs, however, have hit back and pointed out that like the Labour Party's MEPs, they too voted against the final resolution being referred to by Labour. The European Parliament resolution of 26 March 2019 on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance highlighted, spe- cifically, the high level of foreign directive investment flowing to Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ire- land, Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands – countries which adopt a generous tax sys- tem for non-domiciled indus- tries – called on the European Commission to assess the role of the companies used as taxable entities in these countries. A direct economic challenge from the EP's non-binding reso- lution was a call for the Com- mission to forge ahead with plans for a common corporate tax base, which supporters of Malta's taxation regime oppose. Malta's inland tax revenue re- ceives upwards of €200 million in income tax from foreign-owned companies remitting their prof- its to tax-resident companies in Malta. Specifically, Dalli said that the Nationalist MEPs had not voted in favour of a particular amend- ment, tabled by MEPs from the left- wing GUE group (European United Left), to recognise the national in- terest of smaller states in safe- guarding their sov- ereignty on taxation. The amendment sought an insertion in the resolution of the following text: "Takes the view that the princi- ple of unanimity is a last resort for the defence of national in- terests against the supranational imposition of guidelines and de- cisions that run counter to those interests; takes the view, there- fore, that moving from unani- mous approval to approval by qualified majority is to go from a situation in which each coun- try's vote is worth the same to one in which the vote of bigger countries is worth more than the vote of smaller countries; points out that the unanimity principle puts the member states on an equal footing in the decision- making process, and it is cer- tain that ending this principle will only make the main powers more powerful, reinforcing the existing imbalance between the member states with regard to decision-making power." Labour MEPs voted in favour of the amendment, but the Na- tionalist MEPs voted against the a m e n d m e n t , which was not accepted by the plenary of MEPs. All Mal- tese MEPs finally voted against the final resolution. Dalli yesterday accused David Casa, Roberta Metsola and Fran- cis Zammit Dimech, of "voting in favour of a resolution" that "threatens the employment and livelihood of thousands… they voted for the Maltese economy to collapse." "While the PN MEPs spoke one way in Malta, their actions in Europe told a very different story. The resolution touched upon the subject of unanimity, without which Malta would no longer be able to decide for itself on matters of taxation, thus un- dermining its competitiveness," she said. "Unlike the PN's MEPs, La- bour voted in favour of the amendment. They voted against a small country like ours having as strong a voice as other coun- tries," she said. Reacting to the press confer- ence, Metsola, Casa and Zammit Dimech accused Dalli of confus- ing their facts. "The only MEPs that are in fa- vour of there being a single tax system in all EU countries are the socialist MEPs," they said. "This was confirmed in both the European Socialists electoral programme as well as the so- cialists' candidate for European Commission President Frans Timmermans." The MEPs said that the report being referred to by the Labour Party was one which the PN MEPs had voted against, and not in favour of. "Some basic research on the website of the European Parliament confirms this. This means that what the Labour Party's MEP is saying is a blatant lie. The Labour Party's MEPs have been caught sup- porting an electoral manifesto that will remove Malta's right to decide for itself on tax." Parliamentary secretary Sil- vio Schembri yesterday ac- cused the PN of having gone against the political consensus that had previously existed on the country's financial services. "This affects the thousands of people who were directly employed by the gaming, mari- time and financial services in- dustries, as well as those who were employed in sectors that were indirectly affected. An ingredient in the country's at- traction to foreign investors is its tax system." The EP resolution also ex- pressed concern that Malta and Cyprus had citizenship schemes that potentially pose a high risk to the integrity of the common reporting standard on tax and called for a phase-out of the In- dividual Investor Programme and sale of passports. It also made reference to the alleged involvement of Mal- tese PEPs in a possible episode of money laundering and tax evasion connected to a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company called '17 Black', the murder of investigative jour- nalist Daphne Caruana Gali- zia, and the leak from the serv- ers of ElectroGas, the company operating Malta's power sta- tion, which pointed to a pos- sible transfer of large amounts of money to Maltese PEPs re- sponsible for the power sta- tion. NEWS Public consultation extension Send suggestions to reforms@gov.mt UNTIL SATURDAY 8TH JUNE AT 12:00PM Dalli and Metsola at war over MEPs' resolution that punished Malta mt survey MEPs who 'defend Malta's name' most important election issue, survey finds 16-17 Daggers: the two MEPs, Roberta Metsola (left) and Miriam Dalli are their respective parties' front-runners in this year's elections PHOTO RAY ATTARD