The Socialists and Democrats are calling for urgent EU action to fight for tax justice and accelerate legislation that would introduce a tax on digital multinationals. Today’s plenary debate in the European Parliament on the taxation of large digital platforms must also send a clear signal across the Atlantic: Europe’s tax and digital sovereignty is not negotiable.

Bruno Gonçalves, S&D spokesperson on taxation, said:

“We strongly regret the threats from President Trump and the continued efforts of the current US administration to undermine EU tax and digital sovereignty.

“While multilateral tax solutions have always been our preferred option, recent geopolitical shifts clearly show that they are unlikely to materialise any time soon. This means Europe must be ready to move forward with an alternative solution that guarantees fair taxation of the digital economy.

“Ensuring that all digital companies pay their fair share of taxes is essential to prevent fragmentation and distortion of our single market – one of the key pillars of the European project.

“In this context, the S&D Group calls on the European Commission to accelerate legislative action and revisit the proposal for a European digital services tax. Ensuring that digital multinationals pay their fair share of tax has always been a priority for our Group. The EU must not abandon its commitment to tax justice.”

Note to editors:

In January 2025, US President Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the OECD Global Tax Deal, disrupting the global consensus on fair taxation of multinationals, especially digital firms. He has also repeatedly threatened retaliatory tariffs against countries applying digital services taxes targeting US tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple.

The European Commission proposed a European digital services tax in 2018, but the matter was put on hold to makespace for a global solution on digital taxation.

The European Parliament has repeatedly advocated for fair taxation of digital multinationals. In 2020, the EU committed to introducing a digital levy as an own resource. This was also put on hold in view of global solutions but was recently put back on the table by Commission President von der Leyen.