Two weeks ago began a joint action: 80 journalists of international media brought forward overwhelming evidence of Luxemburg’s organized tax avoidance scheme. Headlines of newspapers like The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and other concerning the exposure of these practices did not surprise me at first. For many years now the Tax Justice Network, Attac, the Greens […]
Green action plan against tax fraud and evasion in Europa
Action plan against tax fraud and evasion in Europe The trove of documents leaked in 2013 (Offshore Leaks) and again in 2014 (Lux-Leaks) by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have shed a welcome light on the dark reality of tax fraud and evasion. The EU Commission has estimated that this costs European treasuries […]
Revolving Doors: Letter to President Juncker
Sven Giegold has worked a lot on lobbying transparency. Together with a group of MEPs from different parties Sven Giegold now sent a letter to the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in which they urge him to put in place enhanced mechanisms to prevent a repeat of the revolving door scandals which dominated […]
Tax evasion/Luxembourg leaks – Blow to Juncker’s credibility must spur real EU action against tax avoidance and dumping
Commenting on the ‘Luxembourg Leaks’ revelations on the state of Luxembourg’s role in facilitating large scale tax evasion by the international consortium of investigative journalists (ICIJ), Green economic and financial policy spokesman Sven Giegold said: “These revelations are a major blow to the credibility of new commission president Junker and his capacity to act for […]
EU banking supervision – Milestone for financial stability but work in progress
The new European banking supervision mechanism will officially begin its work tomorrow under the responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB). The most important banks in the Eurozone will be under direct supervision, with the ECB having an indirect responsibility for all other banks. Ahead of the launch Green economic and finance spokesperson Sven Giegold, […]
FT spin on bank levy contributions gets it wrong
Dear Peter Spiegel, In today’s comment on the single resolution funds contributions you wrote: „EU officials declined to make public how much each country would contribute to the €55bn fund under the new plan. They acknowledged that, under the system, some countries with highly-concentrated banking systems would end up paying as much as 4.5 times […]