10.15166/2499-8249/499
https://www.europeanpapers.eu/en/e-journal/european-integration-through-international-law-strange-story-global-tax-project
2499-8249
Cannizzaro, Enzo
Enzo
Cannizzaro
University of Rome "La Sapienza"
European Integration Through International Law? The Strange Story of the Global Tax Project
European Papers (www.europeanpapers.eu)
2021
global tax
tax competition
international law
European integration
multinational enterprises
EU competence in fiscal matters
2021-07-19
European Papers Jean Monnet Network
eng
Editorial
text/html
PDF
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2021 6(1), 779-784
Day after day, the project to reform the current worldwide accepted system of corporate taxation is taking shape, commonly referred to as the global tax project (Statement on a Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy – 1 July 2021). The road to institute a global tax through international, though paved with good intentions, is presumably longer than expected. However, despite these difficulties, it is worth going along it. That road symbolically depicts the overwhelming need to govern the new social and economic dynamics triggered by the new technologies and the difficulties to do it through a decentralised approach. It remains to be seen whether this project will be as revolutionary as it promises and if it will inaugurate a new course in the international economic relations based on a common and fair approach to collective issues. In spite of the laudable intentions of the Commission and the Parliament, the European Union did not have a prominent place in promoting this project. The reason is easily explained by a combination of two factors: the segmentation of the competence assigned to the EU and the complexity and cumbersomeness of its decision-making procedure. If international law can be used – and it regularly is used – as a factor of disintegration of the European legal space, sometimes it can be used in the reverse sense, namely as a powerful element of integration. The story of the global tax may thus resurrect the doctrine 1/76, infrequently invoked and even more infrequently used in the international practice of the Union; it can invert the ordinary relation between internal rules and external powers and create a situation where the Union uses its external competence to attain objectives unattainable through domestic measures; it can give a tangible sign that the external action of the Union will be guided by its ethical values and not, or not only, by selfish interests. It can contribute to a new and fairer approach to the global governance of the economy which, after all, is one of the objectives and values of the Union.