kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
the adoption of a new directive on dispute resolution mechanisms and lastly the conclusion of eu agreements on automatic exchange of information with five third countries' to the european union.
we are in this respect closely monitoring international developments.
it might be the case that many of the practices described in the paradise papers are formally legal;
the presidency has also initiated a debate on the taxation of the digital economy which should provide input into oecd discussions.
this important work is led by the council's code of conduct group for business taxation and has been particularly intense over the past months including in terms of dialogues with a number of countries. at this stage the code of conduct group is seeking commitments from jurisdictions to address the issues that were determined by our experts
here we have to work in the context of twenty eight different systems of national law which strictly speaking fall into the area of national competence but progress is being made.
the commission was quick to present new proposals to tackle the problems identified and the council swiftly found necessary compromises and has adopted tax legislation.
this work of promoting good tax governance standards is also carried out in coordination with the oecd and g twenty agenda.
if you are going to completely ban people from putting money which in many cases could be utterly legitimate investments be it in the british virgin islands or the bahamas or anywhere else if you are going to do that then please be consistent.
make sure that you ban the sale of duty free cigarettes and make sure that you stop anyone using their personal allowances to avoid tax when it comes to investments.
remember tougher action has been taken against the luxleaks whistle blowers than against the accountants corporate executives or politicians involved.
in the eu larger member countries will always be vulnerable to smaller ones acting as tax havens.
today we are debating the paradise papers three years ago it was the luxleaks.
remember that the commission's own president mr juncker was prime minister of luxembourg when his country was conniving with big accountancy firms to erode the tax bases of larger eu economies.
apple has repeatedly shown its contempt for ordinary taxpayers by using every trick in the book to avoid paying its fair share of tax and yet this is the company that the irish government is desperately trying to avoid collecting unpaid taxes from.
the apple leak shows that apple settled on jersey but it also highlights the role that the irish government played in helping apple set up its new tax avoidance structure.
it is also time for the un to convene a global summit in response to this latest leak in order to deal decisively and at a global level with financial secrecy.
in two thousand and fourteen the irish government claimed it was abolishing the notorious double irish' but not only did they provide an absurdly long phase out period they also created a grace period that allowed new companies to be established which could then use the double irish until.
the paradise papers revealed that the world's richest corporation apple went shopping for a new offshore jurisdiction after the role its irish subsidiaries were playing in tax avoidance was exposed.
issues of corporate tax avoidance and evasion are now so prevalent that we need a permanent committee for investigations.
i say that because i fear we could be looking at the biggest level of international political collusion in history.
they have even published a book of reliable friends in the european parliament and there are two hundred and twenty six names on that list including yours sir.
' could you please give us a list of the meetings of all the representatives including george soros yourself.
so i shall be writing today to all two hundred and twenty six of you asking some pretty fair questions have you ever received funds directly or indirectly from open society?
this came about as a result of questions asked in the house of commons by one ben bradshaw somebody linked to an organisation called open society.
i just wonder when we are talking about offshore money when we are talking about political subversion when we are talking about collusion i wonder whether we are looking in the wrong place.
and his influence here and in brussels is truly extraordinary.
just last week the electoral commission in the uk launched an investigation to find out whether the leave campaign took offshore money or russian money.
' and i think this parliament should now set up a special committee to look into all of this.
i hope this new leak has opened the eyes of those member states who had not comprehended the magnitude of the problem.
it urges both the commission and the member states to step up their efforts commitments cooperation and investment in financial and human resources to improve supervision and enforcement.
there are more than two hundred recommendations adopted by the committee.
it counts on the leading role of the commission in setting up criteria for a common eu list of noncooperative tax jurisdictions and calls on the council not to dilute but rather to increase the ambition of the criteria of the said list.
the names of the leaks may change but the mechanisms revealed remain the same anonymous companies or trusts set up and maintained by intermediaries in tax havens low or zero transparency and low or zero taxes and the rich and famous involved including the queen whose finances are internally and externally audited.
there is a good opportunity for them to prove that as this afternoon we will conduct a crucial trilogue negotiation on the revision of the antimoney laundering directive.
mr bayet we have supported all the amendments and all the provisions that in our opinion will lead to an improvement in the whole situation.
we are against tax evasion we are against money laundering and we are in favour of solutions that will make the whole system more efficient and more effective.
successive british governments have postured about leading on transparency but it is easy to play the good guy when you have so many post colonial territories to do the dirty work at your bidding.
the paradise papers also reveal the link between leading brexiteers including tory donor lord ashcroft and jacob rees mogg and these palm fringed islands with their thousands of secret trusts and letterbox companies.
avoiding civilized rules on tax was always part of the brexit agenda but any attempt to turn britain into the bermuda of the north is likely to flounder since the eu will surely make cleaning up the overseas territories a condition for any future trade deal.
so i am hopeful that uk citizens may continue to benefit from green changes to eu laws on tax including the abolition of the sort of blind trust that was appleby's speciality as well as country by country reporting by corporations.
if the choice is for less taxes then public spending has to fall so that a privileged minority wins and an immense minority loses.
they are the financial climate change that threatens to drown europe's welfare states and fundamental fairness in our societies and we must not and cannot allow this to go on in secret.
it forces countries into a never ending race to the bottom on tax rates and sadly we know that some member state governments contribute to this by stalling and diluting new antitax evasion initiatives.
they do so because the council and the code of conduct group operates on the principle of unanimity and also confidentiality.
at the ecofin ministers meeting in december the estonian presidency will strive for the endorsement of a blacklist of non cooperative third countries as proposed by the conduct group.
a far bigger scandal that nobody has yet addressed is the issue of the big german and french corporates who own for instance uk water energy waste collection companies and they make full use all of the so called tax avoidance and tax evasion mechanisms which this chamber and this parliament finds so unacceptable.
can i suggest that your investigation widens and includes the big german and french corporates?
the key question here mr coburn is the following the uk and its related offshore territories are offering their sovereignty to the dirty money of the world with zero tax rates.
now in the proceedings of brexit we have the chance to tell the uk very clearly if you want to get good business with us you must change this stealing of taxpayers' money which has been going on so far and which your government was able to protect inside the eu.
however this relies on effective eu wide inspection policies which are clearly missing.
yet that is what the eu is doing every day. every year tonnes of toxic waste is shipped from the eu to developing countries against european environmental law smuggled through ports with very weak controls.
burning is often the cheapest method to recover these valuable metals as adults and children scramble over the dumps of rubbish in their quest to earn a few cents.
does the waste shipment regulation need to be revised or is it just a matter of enforcement?
frankly as a european i am ashamed. i thank the commissioner for the answers and the responses but we need to know the specifics of how he is going to close this loophole in the waste shipment regulation.
yet annually illegal shipments from the eu are thought to average about twenty two zero tonnes.
in the uk the average briton throws away four pieces of electronic waste every year.
that is five hundred zero tonnes of broken tvs computers and phones but over half of this is not recorded as being recycled it just disappears and that is only in my own country. the export of controlled waste from the eu for disposal is prohibited under current legislations
almost three quarters of electric waste in the eu is unaccounted for and only one third of electronic waste is treated according to eu legislation.
we cannot ignore the environmental and health impacts of this scandal which affects the most vulnerable.
this waste contains lead cadmium barium mercury brominated flame retardants and other chemicals and plastics that become hazardous when burned.
does the commission have any plans to address the tonnes of eu waste already dumped in african countries?
this is an urgent problem and action needs to be taken now.
the weee directive states that exported electronic items must be in working order.
mr president there is a problem in the european union because our citizens are dumping on their own doorsteps. to do that in europe is one thing but to do it to the developing world and to the poor is as the authors of this question said reprehensible.
i will listen carefully to the commission's response about new legislation.
i am always concerned that we layer legislation on top of existing laws without looking at the enforcement aspects and i would ask the commission to address the issue of enforcement.
i think in many areas we do not have sufficient numbers in member states to correctly keep control and account of the transportation issue in this case of toxic waste.
the consequences for the health and welfare of those who handle this waste in a very inappropriate way are extremely serious.
what we do not need is the slow moving kafkaesque eu bureaucracy which has proven itself over and over again to be dysfunctional and unhelpful.
the best approach to help put fires out and help cope with the consequences of fires is to do it locally.
but this is yet another and regrettable example of the eu commission thinking that big is best.
it is local that is best and more than that micro is magic.
this was fire of democracy and colleagues should consider that a parliament should not accept intervention in this way from a member of the executive.
it was profoundly undemocratic for a member of the commission the executive to intervene directly in a parliamentary debate.
victims of fires need people on the spot and they and we need resources applied in exactly the right way at the right time and in the right place that is to say locally. therefore it follows that fires are the ultimate example in which to apply
of course neighbours must help out and of course all donations are welcome and all decent people will indeed help.
to depart for my prepared text there was a fire earlier today in the hemicycle a fire of democracy.
as donald tusk the president of the council pointed out in a prepared statement the day after the brexit referendum all uk citizens and all the citizens of other countries represented by members of the efdd group are fully bound by all the laws rules regulations and directives of the european union.
we therefore have a moral obligation to represent our constituents and to defend our constituents from all too many examples of bad decisions and bad decision making by a number of commissioners many of whom are frankly just not up to the job.
this is the first step.
we talked this morning about trump and what he is doing in terms of protectionism.
has anyone done the risk analysis of what might happen if we implement this? equally remember that the big entrants in the market are now china and india. are we actually sending a message to them that they are not wanted in the european union?
a little bit of risk analysis here we do have two member states ireland and the netherlands who currently shelter the big internet giants and who do give them a certain amount of tax advantage.
hearing this debate another point came to my mind first of all that reform is very difficult especially for countries on their own.
this will change the dynamics.
in the end i think that even if we don't have the twenty seven on board we should push this because it puts pressure on the countries that remain outside an agreement.
because this year will be the moment of truth.
we have the vote tomorrow but it doesn't mean our work ends after tomorrow. we can't just have a vote in the european parliament.
they fear losing competition so the best option for reform is to do it together.
amounts to a simple and robust corporate tax system.
this is a border control that we need to have in place.
that's what people ask from us.
the proposal that the european parliament discusses today is a real game changer.
so we need a lower threshold to give benefits and bring a level playing field to all the firms within europe.
i hope very much that the european parliament will tomorrow give a very clear signal that despite all the political differences we have we can agree that we want a fair efficient and modern corporate tax system for the twenty first century.
it should not just apply to the large corporates but should be extended to include all firms.
the only sovereignty the member states currently have is to lower the tax rate whereas i would think that if countries had a choice they could not just decrease but also increase the tax rates.
reducing the pressure on marginal tax rates and making sure that we let multinationals pay their fair share.
they come from a time with chimneys and blue collar workers.
but we also need a profit border control and that has been included in a proposal by the european parliament as well.
i very much hope that especially the large countries germany and france will put pressure on the smaller countries countries like the netherlands ireland malta luxembourg that are the pirates within the european union.
and location has become a choice something that is particularly true for the tech giants which have no physical presence but are very present in our lives.
we want wealth creators here; we are a friendly nation to people who want to make money and we are not like the eu which is addicted to endless taxation so that they can spend on huge schemes.
i hope that the uk adopts a very competitive position on corporation tax policy postbrexit.
smaller eu countries which currently manage to actually prop up their economies by being competitive on tax such as ireland will be penalised.
you seek to rush in this new fiendishly complex scheme so it may even affect the uk during the dreaded transitional period.
we need simpler taxes that can be set at a national level and encourage competition not an effort to stifle competition.
the committee even wants to reduce the threshold for this from eur seven hundred and fifty million a year down to zero over a seven year period.
by removing the chance for nation states to compete on tax you inevitably increase tax levels and make us all less competitive.
of course when tax is increased the whole economy of all of the eu will be suppressed and held down by this wet blanket of desire to control and to tax all the time.
of course if you can eradicate competition you can raise taxes all across the eu which is actually what you want to do.
i would like to see us competing as an island off the coast of the eu that gives a real competitive advantage to business that says we want you here;
we in the uk should favour business growth and employment.
madam president if there is a strong political will in this house to achieve fairer taxation it makes sense to deal with both cctb and the consolidation file together.
environment for the benefit of fairer competition and above all the citizens.
these proposals are the remaining missing pieces for the eu to fight tax avoidance.
digital businesses in the eu without a physical establishment have to be treated in the same way as businesses having one in the eu. it is up to the member states to find an agreement which responds to the need to keep up with rapid globalisation development. i therefore call on the member states to join us in this renewed initiative to create a fairer tax
that fits with the proposed eurozone common finance minister.
will plans to consolidate taxes to share them round the whole eu end all national budget control?
but for unity in taxation to work effectively as a means to end profit shifting it needs to be global.
my main concern is that member states are being asked to transfer further powers to the commission in exchange for the promise that this new system will end the ability of multinationals to shift profits but shortcomings in the proposal mean that this goal is unlikely to be achieved.
profit shifting outside of the eu is not addressed at all and it will actually increase the incentive for multinationals to shift profits outside the eu. by creating a common tax base across the eu the proposal will in fact promote a race to the bottom on tax rates because the headline rate itself will be the only measure left for member states to compete on.
but at the same time the irish government needs to act now to end the dangerous and unsustainable situation in which it actively markets the irish state as a tax avoidance hub and in which our public finances are severely over reliant on the corporation tax receipts of a handful of multinationals.
we need tax justice we need tax fairness and we need national tax sovereignty.
there is no reason why we cannot achieve all of these things.
are you not concerned that if tax rates across the eu are higher that would inevitably lead to large companies upping sticks and moving their operations into more competitive tax environments outside of the eu and therefore we all lose out because we lose the jobs the business and the wealth?
madam president the principle of taxation policy in trying to encourage investment and industrial policy particularly in peripheral parts of the european union or less developed parts of the union is an essential point that we should never lose.
i recognise that there is a significant majority in this house for both of these reports as has been the case for many many years but there is not a significant majority or anywhere close to that in the council.
that is because there is a real concern among smaller member states that this proposal could lead to a hollowing out of the public tax position in those member states and could lead to a real reduction in terms of their total tax take in favour of larger member states with big domestic populations.
this agreement is the very first of this kind in central asia and reflects the new level of ambition in our relations with one of the eu's closest partners in the region.
the eu has been promoting a more active role for civil society in the implementation of the agreement.
the eu will continue to press for more open markets both in the wto and in our bilateral agreements to spur economic growth and trade as well as democratisation and sustainable development in central asia.
we appreciate kazakhstan's commitment to promote the green economy with ambitious targets for economic diversification and investments in energy efficiency.
we have not only built strong economic ties with kazakhstan we are also keen on consolidating our cooperation in other fields such as in nuclear nonproliferation further reforms towards pluralism and democracy and also to enhance the mobility of people between the two regions.
kazakhstan committed to amend its law on trade unions to bring it in line with the agreement provisions and the conventions of the international labour organization.
moreover just before the dialogue our eu delegation in astana visited an imprisoned civil society activist max bokayev.
this agreement with kazakhstan is an excellent precedent for our relations with other countries in central asia.
the enhanced partnership reflects this progress in our energy cooperation as this is the first time that we have concluded a chapter on raw materials and energy in a nonpreferential agreement with an oil producing country with rules going beyond wto and energy charter treaty commitments.
in all of its actions the eu seeks to be a stabilising factor and will continue to put forward the view that nonextremist political pluralism and broad participation are the best foundations for creating maintaining or strengthening the resilience and security of central asian societies.
we are now further enhancing the humans rights dialogue and consultation with civil society representatives. more exchanges of views will follow during the cooperation council with foreign minister abdrakhmanov planned for twenty six february in brussels.
the eu and our partners in central asia share many common objectives regional peace and stability fighting terrorism fostering the rule of law increasing prosperity and trade. the reinforced cooperation between the eu and kazakhstan is an excellent example of how to advance in practice the goals and interests shared by both sides.
the agreement puts a strong emphasis on democracy and the rule of law human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as civil society cooperation including on the involvement of civil society in public policy making.
the eu has become kazakhstan's first trade partner representing over one third of its external trade and also kazakhstan's first foreign investor.
it provides an essential contribution to the implementation of the eu strategy for central asia notably in the eu's regional cooperation programmes and platforms.
to begin with the enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement provides for a new level in the quality of our economic cooperation.
finally we should not forget that democratic reforms play a crucial role too.
the eu also finances a substantial programme that contributes to judicial reforms and supports the rule of law in kazakhstan.
on other aspects of our mutual relations with kazakhstan we broaden our political dialogues on trade customs energy transport environment and climate change.
notably it was confirmed to us that former head of the union of journalists seitqazy mataev who was sentenced to six years in prison last year was granted early release this month. finally the specific issue of trade unionists and the independence of trade unions were specifically discussed.
the eu discussed his situation as well as several other individual cases of human rights activists and journalists during the dialogue.
let me conclude by stating that the enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement has started to bear fruit and to produce successful common projects.
these areas represent significant opportunities for european companies.