87. Condemns the fact that several tax documents from the Code of Conduct group meetings that were requested have not been disclosed at all or have only been partially disclosed to the committee, although some of them have already been provided to individual citizens who requested them through the access to documents procedure, thus leading to the European Parliament being less well informed than European citizens about the position of the Member States on tax matters; deplores, in addition, the fact that the Commission has only released less than 5 % of the total number of documents requested, which appeared to be some 5 500; regrets ...[+++]the lack of cooperation with the committee by the Commission and Council, impeding the fulfilment of its mandate;

P. whereas the legislator and often insufficiently resourced tax administrations cannot anticipate, but only react, sometimes with great delay, to the innovative tax avoidance schemes which are designed and promoted by some tax advisers, in particular from very large accountancy firms, by lawyers and by intermediary companies; whereas, in particular, experience shows that EU bodies which should prevent the introduction of new harmful tax measures (such as the Code of Conduct Group set up by Member States in 1998 or the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties) have proved incapable of countering these undesirable developments, sometimes reacting in an ineffective way or on the basis of too a limited mandate, and that many new and often agg ...[+++]ressive tax avoidance measures or agreements, such as patent boxes, have been introduced in the EU; whereas MNCs are relying, in the EU and worldwide, on the expertise of a well-organised and skilled sector of tax advisers, as well as banks and other financial service providers, for the development of their tax avoidance schemes; whereas this sector is at the same time represented in bodies advising governments and public institutions on tax matters, such as, for instance, the EU Platform for Tax Good Governance; whereas there are concerns over the conflicts of interest that might arise from the provision by the same firms of advice to both public authorities and private MNCs;

5. Stresses that the Treaty, in line with the subsidiarity principle, allows Member States to determine their own corporate tax rates and tax base until stronger tax convergence measures have been agreed in line with the Treaty; stresses also, however, that the over-complex rules of national tax systems, together with the differences between these systems, create loopholes that are used by MNCs for aggressive tax planning purposes, thus leading to base erosion, profit shifting, a race to the bottom and, ultimately, a suboptimal economic outcome; underlines the fact that this kind of tax avoidance is a negative-sum game for all national ...[+++] budgets taken together, as the increases in tax revenues resulting from harmful practices in one Member State (thanks to derogations, specific deductions or loopholes) do not compensate for the reductions in tax revenues in others; points out that only a more coordinated, joint approach by Member States, which should result in a common framework within which Member States set their tax rates, can prevent further base erosion, harmful tax competition and a tax rate race to the bottom;

They develop across various jurisdictions and effectively, shift taxable profits towards States with beneficial tax regimes.

8. No later than 31 December 2009, the Commission shall report to the Council on the fiscal, economic, agricultural, energy, industrial and environmental aspects of the reductions granted in accordance with this Article.

So far, fiscal policies in support of innovation concentrate mainly on tax relief for expenditure on RD. Spain is an interesting exception, where tax incentives apply not only to RD but also to expenditure on technological innovation.