Sina Science and Technology News Beijing time on the morning of July 3, it is reported that the European Commission Executive Vice President Margaret Vestager (Margrethe Vestager) said that the commission will propose a digital tax in the next few weeks to finance the recovery of the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic, which will apply to hundreds of companies, most of them European companies.

The 27 EU countries agreed last year to jointly borrow 750 billion euros ($887 billion) to create a post-pandemic recovery fund aimed at stimulating economic growth and fostering a greener, more digital economy. The loan will be repaid by the European Commission on behalf of EU countries within 30 years through new taxes, including taxes on the digital economy and carbon dioxide emissions.

Mr Vestager welcomed an agreement reached on Thursday by the organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) that sets out new rules on where to tax companies at a rate of at least 15 per cent. But she said the EU would continue to press ahead with its digital tax, but did not disclose what the tax rate would be.

"if we can fully recognize and implement this plan, and the tax authorities actually have sufficient resources to declare taxes, then some companies that pay little or no taxes today will be able to contribute to society," she said in an interview. "

Vestager said that the EU's digital tax and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's tax agreement have different goals and the scope of taxation is "much wider". "the OECD agreement applies to the 100 largest companies, while the [EU] tax applies to much more companies," she said. " She added that the tax would mainly affect European companies, but other companies would also be affected.

"I understand that for a company, whatever you call it, it's a cost." Vestager said. She added that companies should see this as the normal cost of doing business in Europe.

Vestager declined to provide details on which companies would be affected or the scale of the tax.

An European Commission source said that the commission has rescheduled the provisional date for the introduction of the digital tax from July 14 to July 20, but it is still possible to change.