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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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– The stability of the financial system depends on reducing the num-
ber of institutions that are too large or too interconnected to fail.
– The EU should issue public debt denominated in euros to increase
the stability and liquidity of the eurozone. This requires repeal of
article 17.2 of Regulation 976/2012.
7. Tax evasion and tax avoidance. Tax harmonization
– The EU and its member states need to increase corporate fiscal trans-
parency, obliging multinationals in all sectors to publish a breakdown
of key financial information (employees, value of assets, sales, profits
and taxes due and paid) to determine whether the multinational pays
tax in each country in proportion to its economic capacity.
– The EU should compile a European blacklist of tax havens based on
objective, exhaustive criteria, to stigmatize those territories that do not
cooperate. It should also establish a multilateral sanctions system to
apply both to those territories that operate as tax havens and compa-
nies that use them for the purposes of tax avoidance or tax evasion.
– Member states of the EU should revive and improve the BICCIS
proposal on the harmonization of corporation tax, under which
multinationals would be taxed for their activity within the EU as a
single unit, and the tax collected would be distributed between
member states according to a predetermined formula. This harmo-
nization must be compulsory and cover both the calculation of tax-
able income and the rates applied.
– The EU should support the nationalization of financial institutions
that engage in money laundering.
– The Financial Transactions Tax should be introduced without further
delay or restrictions on its scope.
8. Economic and political immigration
– The EU should promote joint development with African countries,
including those that are not part of the Mediterranean region but
are generators of emigration. The aim should be to offer alterna-
tives of work and subsistence to a growing population of young
people. Development aid with a focus on job creation should be
strengthened.
– The EU must implement a migration strategy that is designed to
respond to the new strategy of people-trafficking networks of set-
ting boats full of irregular migrants adrift on the Mediterranean.
This will require a special maritime surveillance programme, with
particular emphasis on routes with their origin in Libya.