- Barca downed by Monaco as Arsenal held in Champions League stalemate
- Head's 'good night at office' after century seals win over England
- Dubois seeks legitimacy with Joshua scalp
- Rate cut could lift consumer spirits before US elections
- Last-gasp Gimenez strike sends Atletico past Leipzig
- Barca stumble at Monaco after early red card
- Raya heroics save Arsenal in Champions League opener at Atalanta
- Cathay Airbus engine fire linked to cleaning: EU regulator
- Guardians beat Twins to secure MLB playoff berth
- Jihadist attack in Mali capital killed more than 70: security sources
- Alonso hails 'efficient' Leverkusen after Feyenoord rout
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI
- Ex-Man United striker Anthony Martial joins AEK Athens
- NFL unbeatens meet as Texans visit Vikings, Steelers host Chargers
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI after Labuschagne strikes
- Dream debut for Wirtz as Leverkusen thump dire Feyenoord
- Myanmar flood death toll climbs to 293: state media
- Israel army says West Bank air strike kills 4 militants
- LIV golfers get green light for US Ryder Cup team, PGA Championship
- US accuses social media giants of 'vast surveillance'
- Ten Hag to bed Hojlund, Mount in carefully when they return for Man Utd
- Breaking bad as McIlroy endures 'weird' day
- EU chief announces $11 bn for nations hit by 'heartbreaking' floods
- Spanish PM, Palestinian leader urge Mideast de-escalation
- New study reinforces theory Covid emerged at Chinese market
- World Bank boosts climate financing by 10 percent
- Bagnaia eyeing summit on home ground in 100th MotoGP
- 'Something was wrong', defendant in French mass rape tells court
- Hezbollah chief admits 'unprecedented' blow in device blasts
- Sales of US existing homes slip slightly in August
- Fear, panic haunt Lebanese after devices explode
- Labuschagne sparks Australia fightback in England ODI opener
- S.Africa's HIV research power couple says fight goes on
- Why is Israel focusing on border with Lebanon?
- Mpox vaccines administered in Rwanda, first in Africa
- US Fed rate cut is 'very positive sign' for economy: Yellen
- Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany
- 'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
- Brazil judge orders X to reimpose block or face hefty fine
- Munich to rename stadium street after Beckenbauer
- Champions Italy to face Argentina in Davis Cup Final 8
- The winding, fitful path to weight loss drug Ozempic
- Italians defeat American Magic to reach Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Norris has 'nothing to lose' as he hunts Verstappen in Singapore
- Kyiv 'outraged' at Swiss showing of Russian war film
- French city renames Abbe Pierre square after abuse claims
- Footballer charged after huge cannabis seizure at UK airport
- Vatican recognises Medjugorje shrine, but not Virgin's messages
- Israel bombs Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon after wave of deadly blasts
- Bank of England freezes rate after jumbo US cut
Poland, Hungary resist EU's corporate minimum tax push
The EU's effort to implement an internationally agreed minimum tax on big multinationals was met with opposition by Poland and Hungary on Tuesday, endangering a major priority of France's presidency of the bloc.
The EU is trying to seal into law a landmark agreement by nearly 140 countries that forces governments to impose a 15-percent minimum tax on the world's biggest companies.
Under France's just begun six-month presidency, the 27-member EU intends to be the first jurisdiction to implement the OECD-brokered agreement in time for its application on January 1, 2023.
But this would require unanimous approval by bloc members and Poland led a small group of countries with a varied list of misgivings about moving forward.
The resistance by Poland and Hungary comes when the relationship between both countries and their EU partners are fraught, with Warsaw and Budapest seen as steering away from the bloc's democratic values.
The global minimum tax is just one part of the OECD deal, and at the heart of the criticisms by the two countries are that the other key part, or "pillar one", needs to be implemented at the same time.
That part involves a highly complex agreement which would see companies taxed where their profits are made; it targets big tech groups, but has yet to be fully finalised.
"Poland cannot support a unilateral EU introduction of a global minimum tax, reducing the competitiveness of the EU, while leaving behind pillar one," Poland's deputy ambassador to the EU, Arkadiusz Plucinski, said at a meeting of European finance and tax ministers.
"To this end, we insist on our proposal... that is linking the two pillars legally," he said.
Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said failing to tackle the other pillar "would endanger the political leverage on third countries to effectively implement" the deal.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister who is spearheading the proposal, defended the two-track approach.
The EU text transposes the minimum tax "in exactly the same terms" as the OECD proposal, so "there is something incomprehensible" in saying that it should not be adopted, Le Maire said.
France hopes for a final agreement on the minimum tax as early as March, just weeks ahead of presidential elections in which President Emanuel Macron is a likely candidate and would hail the deal as a major accomplishment.
J.Bergmann--BTB