Session organised at the EGP Council, Karlstad, 24 November 2017, 13.30 - 15.15
How can citizens, consumers and Green elected officials participate in the fight for fair taxation and tax transparency?
This session provides space for an exchange of ideas and experiences on how to pressure corporations to pay their fair share to society.
Efforts at the European level will be presented at the session. Thereafter, case studies from Sweden and Czech republic will highlight national and local activism. Following, a discussion with the audience will seek new methods of dealing with tax injustice.
Background:
Since 2014 three major leaks, "LuxLeaks", "Panama Papers" and the recent "Paradise Papers", have shown the true face of international endeveours to evade taxes. Their discoveries also hint that this is just the tip of the iceberg. However, Politics is not spared from tax fraud and financial malpractices. Future prime minister of the Czech republic, Andrej Babiš, has been tagged with allegations of fraud and tax avoidance. Even the Queen of England has recently been allegedly involved in practises of tax evasion.
We support the decision from the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament to make Tax Justice one of its key priorities. The group works intensely on taxation and regularly gains Europe-wide media attention for revelations around tax models of big corporations and the activities of governments and financial institutions in encouraging tax avoidance – such as the ‘Taaks Avoid’ campaign exposing IKEA’s tax practices or the report on the role of middle-men (banks, accountants, lawyers) in the Panama papers scandal. Yet, like the IKEA report showed, local activism can cause a huge uproar and in the case of Austria even promote legislation.
We are glad to welcome experienced speakers who can delve into these and other examples and provide insight into the world of tax justice in action. We are also looking forward to great discussions on measures to act against these malpractices and discover what methods you can use to fight this injustice.
Moderator: Frantisek Nejedly, tax campaigner Greens/EFA
Speakers:
- Molly Scott Cato, MEP (via video conference)
- Michal Berg, Vice Chair of Zelení (Green party Czech Republic)
- Rasmus Ling, Member of Swedish Parliament and board member of Miljöpartiet de gröna (Green party Sweden)
