Brussels, 29/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the European Council, the S&D Group at the European Parliament launched a counter offensive against tax evasion at the very moment when member states are having to tighten their belts in order to consolidate their public finances. The leader of the group, Hannes Swoboda, said that “up to 1 €billion are lost every year” from taxes, which are, “enormous losses” to national budgets. He said that they had to move from words to deeds and that the European Council had to set out a new objective as part of its response to the sovereign debt crisis, namely, “cutting tax evasion by half by 2020”. He pointed out that this objective did not appear at all in the draft conclusions that were going to be submitted to European leaders (see EUROPE 10563).
The action by the S&D Group is based on a study drafted by the British tax expert, Richard Murphy, according to which member states' tax shortfalls are due to tax evasion worth around €1 billion. If this money went into state coffers, public debt could be paid off in eight or nine years, explained Swoboda. These resources would subsequently help bolster public investment in infrastructure and future spending. The Social Democrats are renewing their appeal for a tax on financial transactions. Like the EP, the Social Democrats are also calling for a public recovery fund to be set up to manage excessive debt (above 60% of GDP) in eurozone countries (see EUROPE 10528) and for EIB credit lines to be extended. Swoboda regretted that “this would make an excellent package for growth but I don't see any of this in the European Council conclusions”.
The leader of the S&D Group criticised the attitude of member states, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, which have concluded so-called Rubik agreements with Switzerland that would allow some of the taxes to be deducted from the taxpayers who have deposited savings in Switzerland but without revealing the secret bank accounts operating there (see EUROPE 10560). The MEP said that it was strange that certain countries acted alone, although the EU could do nothing in this area because member states do not give it a mandate to negotiate with Switzerland and other tax havens. He said that although Greece was looking at the possibility of negotiating a Rubik kind of agreement with Switzerland, it needed the EU because its negotiating position is “is much worse than Germany's”. (MB/transl.fl)