At a meeting of the Council on 5 December, EU finance ministers  adopted new rules making it easier for online businesses to collect VAT and comply with VAT obligations. As part of the EU's 'digital single market' strategy, the new rules extend an existing EU-wide portal for the VAT registration of distance sales; establish a new portal for distance sales from third countries with a value below EUR 150; and make online platforms liable for collecting VAT on the distance sales that they facilitate. In other tax-related business, ministers agreed on EU input to discussions at the international level on the taxation of profits in the 'digital economy'. They also approved and published an EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, and agreed to apply ‘defensive’ measures with regard to the listed jurisdictions. On budgetary matters, the Council closed the excessive deficit procedure for the United Kingdom and issued a new recommendation to Romania, as the country has failed to take effective action to correct a significant budgetary deviation.