On the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Single Market and Customs Programme for the period 2028-2034 and repealing Regulations (EU) 2021/444, (EU) 2021/690, (EU) 2021/785, (EU) 2021/847 and (EU) 2021/1077
ECON-PA-784399
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Gilles Boyer
Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.
The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs gives its draft opinion on the Commission proposal to merge four programmes into a Single Market and Customs Programme for 2028-2034.¶¶ It supports the merger but says flexibility lacks guarantees on transparency, accountability and scrutiny, and that Fiscalis should not lose its stand-alone status. It proposes amendments to strengthen monitoring, reporting and evaluation, require work programmes to show priorities and milestones, and reinforce the tax and statistical strands.¶¶
Committee position. The committee supports the Commission's objectives but proposes amendments to strengthen monitoring, reporting and evaluation, require work programmes to show priorities and milestones, and reinforce the tax and statistical strands of the programme.¶
Key points
- The draft opinion supports merging four programmes into one instrument for the Single Market, customs, taxation and anti-fraud, but seeks stronger transparency and scrutiny guarantees.¶
- It asks that work programmes clearly identify priorities, expected progress and measurable outcomes, and demonstrate Union added value.¶¶
- It proposes that the Commission adopt work programmes by implementing acts under the examination procedure, after transmitting drafts to Parliament and the Council.¶¶
- It adds new monitoring and reporting rules, with proportionate reporting requirements on recipients of Union funds.¶
- It adds evaluation rules: an interim evaluation no later than three years after implementation starts, and a final evaluation no later than one year after the period ends.¶
- It requires the Commission to send evaluation conclusions to Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, and to allow structured dialogue.
- It amends the general objective to include fighting tax fraud, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning, supporting tax authorities and improving tax collection, while ensuring transparency towards Parliament.¶
- It adds a specific objective to support tax authorities, tax policy and Union tax law, foster tax cooperation and information exchange, and modernise reporting, auditing and software tools.¶
- It moves support for tax policy and tax collection out of the anti-fraud objective and adds support for the European Public Prosecutor's Office.¶
- It requires official European statistics to follow the quality criteria in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 and to support economic governance, competitiveness, defence, housing, social, environmental and demographic policies.¶
- It lists eligible actions, including meetings, structured collaboration, IT capacity building, human competency building, studies, innovation activities and communication actions.¶¶¶
- It sets priority topics including closing loopholes in Directive 2011/16/EU, exchange of information, cross-border VAT fraud, tax recovery best practices, the FASTER directive, BEPS rules, digital solutions and the simplification agenda.¶
Who is affected
- Tax authorities and tax administrations: the programme would support them, improve tax collection and help implement Union tax law.¶
- The European Parliament: it would receive draft work programmes and evaluation conclusions, and could hold structured dialogue.¶¶
- Recipients of Union funds: they would face proportionate reporting requirements for monitoring.¶
- Member States and their national authorities: the programme would fund cooperation, information sharing and capacity building.¶