Spain supports a realistic and pragmatic reform of European tax rules
European Tax Rules. The First Vice-President and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has given (7 February 2022) her support to “a realistic and pragmatic agenda for reforming tax rules”, within the framework of the debate on the reform of European economic governance, one of the topics of economic debate this semester.
After a bilateral meeting held with the President of the Eurogroup and Irish Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, Vice-President Nadia Calviño championed “a realistic and pragmatic framework for tax consolidation, with deficit and debt reduction paths adapted to each country’s situation and which strengthens public finances in the long term, by boosting growth, the creation of quality jobs and investment in the twofold green and digital transition”.
The Vice-President highlighted the “constructive spirit” of the discussions already taking place in the Eurogroup and the need to “move forward at a good pace over the coming months, the goal being to have a realistic framework and to avoid pitfalls and reviving old debates of the past”.
Paschal Donohoe hoped that a “common understanding could be reached as soon as possible” and shared the need to address the issue pragmatically and on the basis of consensus.
The two ministers also discussed the need to make further progress on the Banking Union and to agree on a work programme that they needed to develop over the coming months.
“Spain will continue to take a constructive position and play a leading role in the debates. We will continue to work together on the basis of consensus to get it right in decisions we take for putting the recovery on track”, the Vice-President assured.
Focus on economic recovery
Before the bilateral meeting, the Vice-President and the President of the Eurogroup took part in a debate focusing on recovery and organised by the Elcano Royal Institute on the main opportunities and challenges for the euro area in 2022.
“We are in a strong and sustained stage of economic growth and this will be the year when the recovery reaches cruising speed. Spain will be one of the driving forces behind European recovery. This will provide us with numerous opportunities for launching the investments and reforms that Spain and Europe need and ensuring this sustained growth over time, not just from economic and financial perspectives, but from environmental and social perspectives too”, Calviño added.
European response and Spain’s contribution
The Vice-President emphasised that “the response to this crisis has been very different from that of the last financial crisis” and that the recovery in Spain “has been reaching citizens”, thanks to the measures implemented, and “is no mere temporary effect”, as shown by the latest employment figures.
“Pre-pandemic levels have recovered in just 15 months, with figures we have not seen since before the start of the financial crisis in 2008”.
She highlighted the coordination of economic policies in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN, which “has been fundamental in providing answers and solutions to citizens, and creating safety nets that would maintain the base of the productive fabric, avoiding a structural impact and financial instability”.
“The Eurogroup has played a key role in the response to this crisis, and I believe it must continue to do so in this recovery stage. We have dealt well with the response to the pandemic and have to get it right in this second stage by channelling the recovery and the main discussions taking place over the coming months in the context of the Eurogroup,” she concluded.