However, countries also have a right to protect their tax bases against aggressive tax planning and unfair tax competition.

75. Considers that fair tax competition is one of the constitutive elements of the internal market, but that, the primary competence of the Member States notwithstanding, unfair tax competition must be prevented, for example through harmonised tax bases, exchanges of information between tax authorities, and the granting of an explicit legal right to control movements of capital if this is essential to the proper functioning of the tax system in the Union; takes the view that introducing a common corporate tax base (CCTB) would help make the system more transparent; believes that the issue of consolidation can be addressed at a later da ...[+++]te, and should not be a barrier to the swift introduction of a CCTB;

Therefore, it will be an objective for the Commission, as soon as possible in the current year (2015), to complete the competition procedures concerning unfair tax competition and thereby make clear to Member States the European-law boundaries of unfair tax competition.

76. Considers that fair tax competition is one of the constitutive elements of the internal market, but that, the primary competence of the Member States notwithstanding, unfair tax competition must be prevented, for example through harmonised tax bases, exchanges of information between tax authorities, and the granting of an explicit legal right to control movements of capital if this is essential to the proper functioning of the tax system in the Union; takes the view that introducing a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) would help make the system more transparent; believes that the issue of consolidation can be addressed ...[+++] at a later date, and should not be a barrier to the swift introduction of a CCCTB;

69. Welcomes the investigations initiated by the Commission in 2014 into unlawful State aid, through unfair tax competition, to the benefit of certain individual companies, which was extended to all the 28 EU countries in 2015; calls, furthermore, on the Member States in future to present to the Commission, in good time and without delay, all relevant information about their tax practice, and, at long last, to comply with their obligation to disclose to the Commission and to Parliament details of any special arrangements that may have an impact on other Member States and SMEs;

Now it is time to agree on a number of concrete measures in the field of tax coordination in line with the Primarolo report to prevent the further erosion of the tax base and permit fair tax competition, whilst eliminating unfair tax competition which leads to a distortion in competition in the European economy.