On Tuesday, 18 April, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held, within the framework of its initiative “In the run-up to the Spanish Presidency”, a breakfast-debate with Jorge Ferreras, Coordinating Finance Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Spain in the EU. The presentation focused on the priorities of the Spanish Presidency in the field of taxation.

After a brief introduction by the President of the Chamber, Pablo López-Álvarez, the speaker began his speech by stressing the “great opportunity” that the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the Union represents, which in his opinion “has already begun, with its preparations and pre-meetings”.

Ferreras broke down the tax priorities one by one, listing the various files that the Spanish Presidency plans to cover during its term of office.

Among the issues he mentioned, he highlighted the ViDA initiative (“VAT In the Digital Age”), which seeks to extend the success of Spain’s management of digital indirect taxation to the whole of the European Union.

On energy taxation, Ferreras assured that the Spanish Presidency will continue working on the current directive, which is giving rise to a “debate that is not easy” among the Member States.

“We have quite an ambitious menu, with many files on the table,” said Ferreras, assuring that the PERMREP is working to plan the Presidency in order to cover as much as possible in the tax field.

At the end of the presentation, there was an extensive question and answer session on topics such as the VAT directives for tourism, the tobacco directive, taxation for e-commerce and taxation for financial transactions, among others.