PM Spox: Hungary Will Oppose Global Min Corp Tax @ EU Meeting

The head of Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's office, Gergely Gulyás, has confirmed that Hungary will oppose the EU's planned directive on establishing a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to come in line with OECD proposals to make the rate a minimum across the organisation (see 0845BST EM bullet).

• EU finance minister are due to vote on the issue at a ECOFIN meeting today, but the vote may now be pushed back.
• While the Hungarian gov't states that the opposition is due to the economic impact on Hungary, there is the potential for an ulterior motive at play. Earlier this week, Poland dropped its opposition to the directive following talks between PM Mateusz Morawiecki and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that ended with the EU approving the Polish gov'ts plans for distributing its share of funds from the EU's COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Facility.
• Hungary's plan is yet to be approved by the EU, and as such the opposition to the directive could be seen as an attempt to cajole the EU into approving Budapest's plan for the RRF funds. The EU's long-standing concerns over rule of law standards in Hungary remains a major impediment to the release of the funds.