In its work programme for 2018, published on 24 October 2017, the European Commission has expressed support for moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting by EU Member States on certain EU legislation, including tax legislation. The Commission’s announcement echoes a call by EU President Juncker for similar reform in his state of the union speech earlier in the year. Although the announcement was made in the European Commission’s work programme for 2018 it is clearly a more long term project with an indicative timing of 2025. Looking at the shorter term, the Commission’s work programme includes a number of existing proposals that it is pushing for swift adoption, including the controversial proposal to introduce common EU tax rules – known as CCCTB – and the disclosure of income tax information, which is presumably a reference to the – equally controversial – proposal for public country by country reporting.
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