Mr. Paolo Gentiloni:

I thank the Deputy for his two questions. I would not speculate on alternatives to the global framework solution because I believe all our efforts are now to reach an agreement and, of course, continue the dialogue with Ireland and other member states, two of which are not yet convinced about the proposals. The Deputy was correct in that the Commission has, in its country-specific recommendations, been asking a certain number of member states about measures on taxation. I would say it has been doing so "traditionally" because it has been doing so for several years. In the cycle of country-specific recommendations, the Commission is asking — normally, I think — seven of our 27 member states about measures to tackle what in our Brussels language we call ATP, which is not something connected to tennis but an aggressive tax plan.

In the plans of these six or seven countries, there are some limited measures to address this issue.

I must say that it is also emerging as a development of something that national governments were already doing, for example, the decision made here in respect of the application of the measures in place for blacklisted jurisdictions to outbound payments. There is also the commitment to extend the application from blacklisted jurisdictions to zero-tax or no-tax jurisdictions by 2024. This will limit the possibility of outbound payments not being taxed, which I am sure is also an objective of the Irish Government. We are encouraging member states to go in this direction through our country-specific recommendations, and we have connected these country-specific recommendations to the recovery and resilience facility. This gave the Commission more leverage to get results from these recommendations, which are normally followed but not completely followed by member states.

As far as the future availability of funds in the recovery and resilience facility is concerned, there will be some marginal adjustment in 2022 because the agreement was that the allocation available would be 70% of the total amount of the facility and that the remaining 30% could be adjusted in relation to the development of the economic situation and the pandemic in member states. Therefore, some tweaking of the allocation criteria is possible next year. Of course, we will remain within the limits of the recovery and resilience facility; we are not issuing a new debt apart from the amount agreed.