It ain’t over 'til it's over: The struggle over corporate tax harmonization in the EU

This dissertation examines the relaunch and transformation of the European Commission’s Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) proposal in 2016. Initially introduced in 2011 as a voluntary, business-friendly framework for harmonizing EU corporate taxation, the CCCTB failed to gain political agreement. Its subsequent relaunch as a mandatory, anti–tax avoidance instrument marked a significant policy shift. Adopting a critical political economy perspective and employing the Historical Materialist Policy Analysis (HMPA) framework, this dissertation interprets EU tax policy as the outcome of a struggle between three competing hegemony projects: neoliberal, neomercantilist, and center-left. Drawing on expert interviews and extensive document analysis, four key explanatory factors for the CCCTB’s relaunch are identified: the post-crisis rise of a center-left project advocating tax justice; the enduring structural power of neoliberal forces that limits the possibilities for progressive change; member state budgetary and administrative concerns; and strategic action within the European Commission. Although center-left ideas reshaped the Commission’s framing of the CCCTB, persistent power asymmetries prevented its adoption, illustrating the structural constraints on progressive reform within EU corporate tax policymaking.