On April 26, 2022 the European Commission put forward a Recommendation for a Council Decision to authorise the Commission to open negotiations for the amendment of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax.

The EU-Norway Agreement on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and assistance on recovery of claims in the field of VAT is the first of its kind with a non-EU country. Estimates show that the already successful relationship in this area alerted Member States to potential VAT fraud losses of around €5 billion since 2020.

The Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway (“Norway”) on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax (“the Agreement”) entered into force in September 2018. The Agreement is the first of its kind with a non-EU country. The Agreement allows the EU Member States and Norway to cooperate in a similar way Member States do under Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 and Council Directive 2010/24/EU to fight against VAT fraud, and assist each other to recover claims in the field of VAT.

The Recommendation from the Commission seeks the green light from the Member States to re-open negotiations with Norway in order to strengthen cooperation even further. The aim of the negotiations should be twofold:

(1)  provide Member States, to the extent possible and so far as necessary, with new cooperation tools with Norway, similar to the ones introduced in the Regulation 904/2010 with Regulation (EU) 2018/1541. In particular, negotiations should cover:

–   the exchange information by using other means than standard forms;

–   administrative enquiries carried out jointly;

–   Eurofisc follow-up actions.

(2)  update the legal references Directive 95/46/EC by Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

The negotiations should not lead to the possibility for Norway to “access the databases of the  Member States”.

The Recommendation for a Council Decision  to open negotiations to strengthen the EU's VAT cooperation with Norway can be downloaded here.

The annex to the Recommendation for a Council Decision  to open negotiations to strengthen the EU's VAT cooperation with Norway can be downloaded here.

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