PES President Sergei Stanishev said: “Stepping up our fight against tax avoidance is much needed in Europe. These kind of special deals to attract major companies to one European country among others are illegal, disloyal and deeply destructive for our social welfare systems and the single market. The PES has long condemned this fiscal race to the bottom“.
According to the European Commission’s investigation, Ireland allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than to other competitors. The PES not only condemns the market distortion provoked by this illegal measure, but also the effect of these practices on the national budgets of Ireland and other European countries.
Stanishev said: “I’m sure that Irish citizens could have used those €13 BN for their hospitals, schools and pensions. They deserve an explanation from their government. Other European countries deserve it, too, because Apple has been diverting profits generated in those countries to avoid its fair share of taxes and it has done so for over two decades. Companies must be taxed where the profit is generated”.
The PES will continue to engage for fair, loyal, transparent taxation in the EU, as it has done in the past in close cooperation with the S&D group at the European Parliament.
