The Commission’s Political Strategy to Promote Direct Tax Policy Convergence in the EU: Actors, Narratives and Policy Groups

Abstract

This contribution explores the political strategy applied by the European Commission (Commission) to prevail over the obstacles for achieving legislative harmonization in the field of corporate direct taxation in the European Union (EU). It argues that the Commission’s political strategy is evolving throughout the years adapting to the changes in the international and supranational scenarios and expanding through three basic elements: (1) the actor’s involved in the direct tax policy discussions and their preferences and meanings for a corporate tax reform; (2) the construction of policy narratives aligned with actor’s preferences and meanings; and (3) the institutionalization of policy groups: the Code of Conduct Group, the Joint Transfer Pricing Forum and the Platform for Tax Good Governance. These elements of change are discussed in order to evaluate whether and to what extent the strategy has so far generated the transfer of tax policies from the EU Members to the EU level. Having regard to the final policy goal of the Commission, which is to achieve a comprehensive direct corporate tax reform epitomized in the proposal of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, this working paper finalizes by identifying what should be the political strategy of the Commission in the next years to enable more transfer of direct corporate tax policies to the EU level.