Brussels, 17 June 2022
Today, the Council authorised the opening of negotiations with Norway to strengthen the agreement between the EU and Norway on administrative cooperation, combating fraud and recovery of value added tax (VAT) claims.
The EU’s current agreement with Norway is considered as working well and mutually beneficial. It entered into force in September 2018. It allows both parties to cooperate in a similar way EU member states do to fight against VAT fraud, and assist each other to recover claims in the field of VAT.
The Council considers it timely to further strengthen cooperation with Norway. It wishes to expand the agreement in order to also include a number of new possibilities for administrative cooperation which were created since 2018, such as:
- enhancement of the Eurofisc network through reinforced governance, the so-called follow-up actions (joint processing and analysis of data) and administrative enquiries carried out jointly (joint audits);
- the possibility to use additional means to exchange information.
Today, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with Norway to this effect.
- Council decision
- Commission recommendation
- VAT fraud: EU approves cooperation agreement with Norway (press release, 22 June 2018)
- EU-Norway agreement signed, strengthening the prevention of VAT fraud (press release, 6 February 2018)
Source –EU Council