On 15 March, MEPs voted in favour of plans to establish a common consolidated corporate tax base, which is a common set of rules that companies operating in the EU could use to calculate their taxable profits instead of having to follow different rules for each EU country they are located in. They voted on two pieces of legislation that will make it harder for companies to shift profits to those EU countries where corporate taxes are lower.

French EPP member Alain Lamassoure, who wrote the report on the common consolidated corporate tax base, welcomed a recent initiative by the European Commission to name EU countries involved in aggressive tax planning, including Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands."[With the new legislation] any attempt to set up aggressive tax planning schemes, artificially drawing fiscal revenues towards some member states, at the expense of others, will become obsolete,” said Lammasoure.

Dutch S&D member Paul Tang, who wrote the report on the common corporate tax base, said: “National and EU leaders are beginning to understand that the current systems are outdated and leave citizens and small companies worse off. The momentum is there, we keep up the pressure."