Poland blocks proposed EU directive on OECD’s Pillar Two minimum tax
Poland has blocked the compromise proposal for an EU directive to implement Pillar Two of the OECD’s global tax package, saying that the Two-Pillar solution needed to be tackled together within the same directive. The vote took place during today’s Economic Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting (5 April 2022), the third this year.
Disagreements among the EU’s finance minister over the proposed EU directive, published in December 2021, led the French to table various compromise proposals. France had hoped that all the disagreements would be resolved by today’s ECOFIN meeting. Estonia, Malta, and Sweden were among the governments to resist the directive, but joined the majority during previous meetings.
In response to the Polish veto, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that he was ‘not convinced by the Polish argumentation’, and reiterated that France ‘would continue to pursue this goal, which we believe will be a step forward, until it is adopted.’
The proposed directive must be passed unanimously by EU member states in order to become law.
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