REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the negotiation of bilateral arrangements or agreements between EU Member States and the United Kingdom, relating to administrative cooperation in the field of VAT or recovery assistance for any taxes, in accordance with Article 8(2) of Council Decision (EU) 2021/689
Date: 2025-01-28
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission
Subjects: United Kingdom, VAT, administrative cooperation, bilateral agreement, confidentiality, cooperation agreement (EU), data protection, exchange of information, tax collection, trade agreement (EU)

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 28.1.2025  COM(2025) 16 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the negotiation of bilateral arrangements or agreements between EU Member States and the United Kingdom, relating to administrative cooperation in the field of VAT or recovery assistance for any taxes, in accordance with Article 8(2) of Council Decision (EU) 2021/689  
 
 
Introduction 

Article 8(2) of Council Decision (EU) 2021/6891 requires the Commission to report to the 
European Parliament and to the Council on the draft agreements or arrangements negotiated 
between EU Member States and the United Kingdom, relating to administrative cooperation 
in the field of VAT or recovery assistance for taxes or duties.  

Administrative cooperation for VAT and customs duties and recovery assistance for VAT, 
excise  duties  and  customs  duties  are  covered  by  the  Trade  and  Cooperation Agreement 
between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, 
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, (hereinafter 
referred to as the ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’), and in particular by the Protocol on 
administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of VAT and on mutual assistance 
for  the  recovery  of  claims  relating  to  taxes  and  duties  (hereinafter  referred  to  as  the 
‘Protocol’), attached to this Trade and Cooperation Agreement. 

When Member States intend to negotiate any bilateral agreement or arrangement with the 
United Kingdom in the field of VAT administrative cooperation or recovery assistance for 
any taxes or duties, they need to consult the Commission. They may only sign and conclude 
such  an  arrangement  or  agreement  with  the  United  Kingdom  once  the  Commission  has 
confirmed the validity of the arrangement or agreement concerned against EU law. 

Similarly,  when  negotiating  a  memorandum  of  understanding  implementing  another 
international  agreement  providing  for  recovery  assistance,  national  authorities  have  to 
ensure  that  the  memorandum  of  understanding  does  not  contain  any  provisions  that 
undermine  the  functioning  of  the  Trade  and  Cooperation  Agreement  or  of  the  internal 
market and that put at risk the attainment of an objective of the Union’s external action in 
the recovery assistance area, or are otherwise prejudicial to the Union’s interests.2  

This means that the taxes and duties covered by the administrative cooperation and recovery 
assistance provisions of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement should not be covered by the 
corresponding provisions of agreements and memorandums of understanding that Member 
States negotiate with the UK. A mere statement that EU law takes precedence is insufficient. 

Moreover, bilateral negotiations on specific elements – e.g. any change to the threshold in 
Article 33(4) of the Protocol – cannot be envisaged, since the provisions concerned are part 
of  the  global  Trade  and  Cooperation  Agreement,  which  is  the  result  of  multisector 
negotiations.  Hence,  modifying  this  outcome  in  one  area  can  never  be  done  without 
considering the whole of the agreement, especially in areas linked to the trade part of the 
agreement which touch upon a very large number of economic activities. In that context, a 
unilateral Member State negotiation on such a specific element would be contrary to the 
principle of sincere cooperation, laid down in Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union. 

1   Council Decision (EU) 2021/689 of 29 April 2021 on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Trade and 
Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the 
one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, (hereinafter referred 
to as the  ‘Trade and  Cooperation Agreement’) and of the Agreement between the European Union and the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning security procedures for exchanging and 
protecting classified information, OJ L 149 of 30.4.2021, p. 2. 

2   Article 7 of Council Decision 2021/689 of 29 April 2021. 

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Further,  administrative  cooperation  and  recovery  assistance  under  any  international 
agreement between a Member State and the UK are of course also excluded in situations 
where  this  administrative  cooperation  and  recovery  assistance  are  covered  by  the  UK 
Withdrawal agreement3 and its Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, and by the Protocol on 
mutual administrative assistance in customs matters, attached to the Trade and Cooperation 
Agreement. 

With  regard  to  recovery  assistance  for  taxes  not  covered  by  the  EU  agreements,  the 
Commission  has  reminded  the  Member  States  that  they  have  the  option  to  reduce  the 
administrative and budgetary burden linked to translation needs by opting for the use of the 
electronic communication network and the standard forms adopted for the implementation 
of  the  Protocol,  in  accordance  with  art.  38(4)  of  this  protocol.  Art.  PVAT.38(4)  of  the 
Protocol  provides  that  ‘the  electronic  communication  network  and  the  standard  forms 
adopted for the implementation of this Protocol may also be used for recovery assistance 
regarding  other  claims  than  the  claims  referred  to  in  point  (b)  of  paragraph  1  of Article 
PVAT.2, if such recovery assistance is possible under other bilateral or multilateral legally 
binding instruments on administrative cooperation between the States’. It is in the interest 
of the EU Member States  –  and the UK  authorities  – to  effectively  apply these standard 
forms  (request  forms    and  Uniform  notification  form  (UNF)  and  Uniform  instrument 
permitting  enforcement  in  the  requested  State  (UIPE))  adopted  under  this  Protocol  for 
recovery  assistance  concerning  other  taxes,  with  the  related  advantages  of  automated 
translation, with direct legal effect of the UNF and UIPE (without any need for recognition 
in the requested State) and the possibility to send a combined request in cases of multiple 
claims  falling  within  the  scope  of  respectively  the  EU-UK  agreements  and  the  other 
international agreements that apply between EU Member States and the UK. 

The fact that a memorandum of understanding only intends to describe the interpretation of 
an  existing  multilateral  agreement4  by  the  competent  authorities  does  not  justify  any 
derogation to the above rules. 

From the response provided by the EU Member States, it appears that the UK authorities 
have  approached  several  Member  States  to  conclude  a  double  taxation  agreement, 
containing  provisions  on  administrative  cooperation  and  tax  recovery  assistance,  or  a 
memorandum of understanding on the application of bilateral agreements providing for tax 
recovery  assistance  or  on  the  application  of  the  multilateral  convention  on  mutual 
administrative assistance in tax matters. 

The table below summarises the cases brought to the attention of the Commission so far. 

3   Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European 

Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, OJ L 29 of 31.1.2020, p. 7. 

4    In particular the multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters, adopted by the 
Council of Europe and the OECD. On this point, the Commission notes that no Member State ever reported 
to have concluded bilateral arrangements with the United Kingdom for a wider cooperation or assistance than 
under the Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 on administrative VAT cooperation and Council Directive 
2010/24/EU on tax recovery assistance (see Article  60 of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 and Article 24 of 
Directive 2010/24/EU). 

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Type of agreement 

Status 

Actions taken/envisaged 

MoU  on 
assistance 

tax 

recovery 

Signed 

Member 
State 
Austria 

Lithuania 

Spain 

Poland 

Sweden 

Czechia 

Belgium 

Portugal 

Luxembourg  Double taxation convention  Signed 

tax 

tax 

tax 

tax 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

recovery 

recovery 

recovery 

recovery 

MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
Double taxation convention  Ongoing 
Double taxation convention  Ongoing 
Ongoing 

recovery 

recovery 

recovery 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

tax 

tax 

tax 

Czechia 
Portugal 
Netherlands  MoU  on 
assistance 
MoU  on 
assistance 
Double taxation convention  Ongoing 

Germany 

Romania 

recovery 

recovery 

Ongoing 

tax 

tax 

Interpretative  statement  published  by  the 
Member State.5 
Member  State  commitment  to  amend  the 
double  tax  convention  and  MoU  at  the  next 
occasion. 
Interpretative  statement  published  by  the 
Member State.6 
Member  State  commitment  to  amend  the 
double tax convention at the next occasion. 
No draft received by the Commission. 

No draft received by the Commission. 

Comments provided by the Commission. 

Comments provided by the Commission. 

Comments provided by the Commission.  

Comments provided by the Commission.  

Comments provided by the Commission. 

Czechia to submit text to the Commission. 
Comments provided by the Commission. 
Comments provided by the Commission. 

Comments provided by the Commission. 

Comments provided by the Commission. 

The Commission remains committed to provide Member States the appropriate advice to 
ensure that the bilateral texts they negotiate are compatible with the Trade and Cooperation 
Agreement and the Protocol and will take all appropriate actions to deliver on that objective. 

5   Instruction of the Federal Ministry of Finance of 8 April 2022, 2022-0.201.316, published in relation to the 
double  tax  convention  with  the  United  Kingdom;  https://www.bmf.gv.at/themen/steuern/internationales-
steuerrecht/doppelbesteuerungsabkommen/dba-liste.html 
6   https://mfin.gouvernement.lu/fr/actualites/2023/condigblu.html 

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