STRASBOURG, France (AP) — The European Union's executive is proposing to get rid of the veto power that member states can wield on EU taxation issues. The idea is to make it easier to react more quickly to tax scandals, such as sweet deals that some states have allegedly given to big companies.
People walk near the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. In a letter to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May published Monday, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker offered an assurance that the backstop "would only be in place for as long as strictly necessary".
The European Commission proposed Tuesday to move to a system of weighted majority among the 28 member states. The proposals will still need to be vetted by the EU parliament and the member states, where they are expected to run into opposition.
The EU has been criticized for reacting too slowly to tax scandals. Some states, for example, have allegedly given multinationals unusually advantageous tax terms to have them base their EU headquarters. The practice deprives other states of tax revenue.