15.06.2018
Traineeship opportunity at Petr Ježek’s Brussels office
09.01.2018
Goodbye to tax havens? Interview for France 24
12.12.2017
Traineeship opportunity at Petr Ježek’s Brussels office
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Petr Ježek
Born in Prague in 1965. A graduate of Prague’s University of Economics, Petr Ježek joined his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as a diplomat. For some ten years, he held relatively high posts related to the country’s ties with the EU, e.g. heading the Foreign Ministry’s European Integration Department and serving as Deputy State Secretary for European Affairs. He also worked as chief of staff of then Czech Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla. In 2014, Petr Ježek was elected Member of the European Parliament on the ballot of the ANO 2011 party.
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European Commissioner for Competition Margarethe Verstager this week attended a session of the EP’s special committee on tax rulings (TAXE) in Brussels. The Commission had earlier provided the TAXE committee with a list of 65 tax rulings granted since 1991 by 15 countries, as well as with a questionnaire sent to EU Member states last December 2014, asking them for further information on their tax rulings practices.
In the debate, Commissioner Verstager recalled that only 10 of the 65 cases were notified to the Commission. She explained that when tax rulings are not notified, EU authorities have the power to open an investigation following a complaint or when tipped off in other ways that something might not be as it should, thus stressing the limits of EU competition law. Some members called for enhanced EU powers in this matter.
The Commissioner also said that so far, only three countries – the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia – have not yet returned their tax rulings questionnaires to the European Commission.
There are now several ongoing investigations into tax rulings, such as those concerning Apple in Ireland, Fiat Finance and Trade and Amazon in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands. Commissioner Vestager admitted that the Commission would not be able to meet the deadline it set itself of the end of the second quarter of this year for issuing conclusions.
The Commissioner also made it clear that she wants to see the European Commission become the hub of an automatic exchange of information system between member states about tax rulings but admitted some countries had voiced objections to the plan.