Following her opinion piece in favour of fair taxation of the ultra-rich (see EUROPE 13142/26), MEP Aurore Lalucq (S&D, French) launched a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) on Thursday 8 June to propose a tax on large fortunes. This new approach is being led by the President of the Belgian Socialist Party, Paul Magnette, economists such as Thomas Piketty, millionaires and non-governmental organisations. Aurore Lalucq gave EUROPE more details about this project. (Interview by Anne Damiani)
Agence Europe - Why did you decide to launch this ECI and why did you team up with Paul Magnette?
Aurore Lalucq - The ECI was Paul’s idea. He has always worked on European issues and he started working on the issue of wealth tax. He remembered the appeal I had made through the opinion piece (see EUROPE 13142/26, 13141/33) and asked me to contribute to the ECI. I said yes straight away!
Our aim is to help institutions that want to introduce wealth taxation but are unable to do so. This ECI is another way of waging this battle and reinforces it. All initiatives contribute to its necessity. We need to do everything we can to raise this debate in the political arena and push it forward politically.
What do you expect from this ECI?
The ultimate aim is to produce a proposal for a directive drawn up by the European Commission. The money raised by this tax will help finance the ecological transition and support the in-depth transformation of our industry, our way of producing, consuming and trading. This should also help to protect the most vulnerable and avoid a harsh social impact. Of course, this will not be enough to finance the necessary ecological revolution, but it is one tool among others. It’s also symbolic: ensuring that everyone contributes according to their means. It’s a collective effort, and everyone has to do their bit. Everyone should pay their fair share of tax.
Do you think the context is more favourable to this initiative?
Overall, our tax system is quite broken, as a result of neo-liberal ideology and globalisation. Even in France, the tax system is regressive, where the richer you are, the less tax you pay. It’s the opposite of what needs to be done, we need to put things back in order.
Especially as we can see that there is a real social expectation. Despite all the rhetoric about the need for tax fairness, we realise that today’s tax models are very much in the interests of the very rich. We need to do something about this if we want to avoid tax fatigue.
The sequences are speeding up, with more and more voices speaking out in the same direction. In addition to the millionaires and the associations that co-signed the opinion piece, the issue of taxing capital and large fortunes was raised by US President Joe Biden and at the OECD.
At the EU Tax Observatory conference in May, Gerassimos Thomas, the European Commission’s Director General for Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), was rather open to the question. Things are moving quite fast, perhaps faster than the taxation of multinationals.
What are the next steps?
The Commission has between 2 and 4 months to respond on the legal basis and check whether our request can be accepted. If so, it will register the ECI, which will then be published on the website. After that, we will have a year to collect at least 1 million signatures from at least seven Member States. From September, we’ll be launching a campaign to get people to sign up.
Read the text of the ECI: https://aeur.eu/f/7ew