Alfred Sant on EU Panama papers committee

The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) nominated MEP Alfred Sant as a substitute member on the European Parliament’s Panama papers committee.

This is a similar role Sant has already been entrusted by S&D on the TAXE 1 and TAXE 2 committees regarding the Lux leaks scandal.

A substitute member on an EP committee has all the facilities of a full member but just doesn't vote, which gets around the image problem for the island of having a Maltese MEP who when defending Malta's interests, ends up in a minority of one or two on most taxation issues, particularly the proposal for tax harmonisation across all EU member states, which is not beneficial to Malta and Gozo.

“From the beginning I wanted to be a substitute member on these committees for technical reasons. A substitute member has the same rights as regular members and will be posted and involved on all developments, from beginning till the end”, said Sant.

As happened with the committees on the Lux leaks scandal TAXE 1 and TAXE 2, Alfred Sant’s membership of the Panama papers committee will allow him to follow, hands on, the analysis of how tax scandals arose and the measures being proposed to combat them.

This goes beyond narrow issues of Malta based partisan give and take, or whether "shell" companies prevail in Malta and elsewhere.

 “Issues that are vital to the financial services industry and to the need for Malta to preserve her autonomy in tax policy issues will no doubt again be raised.

“It is crucial that we know about how these issues are developing and to be able to voice a reasonable case against solutions that go against our national interest, such as the harmonisation of tax systems that will be consistently proposed.”

Sant said this should be done while making it clear that we are in favour of transparency in taxation matters and stand against all forms of tax evasion,” remarked the Maltese MEP.