Because multinational corporations are having to pay less and less tax on their profits, ordinary citizens and small and medium-sized businesses must dig ever deeper.
This is confirmed by the Netherlands’ National Auditors following a comprehensive investigation into tax evasion by multinationals carried out on the initiative of the SP and the small parliamentary party the Green Left. According to the Auditors, when it comes to rates of tax on multinationals the Netherlands can even be compared to the notorious tax haven Luxembourg.
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Do you really want to get rid of nuclear weapons? I put this question this week to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert Koenders. I remember very well the backbench Member of Parliament Bert Koenders who advocated the removal of nuclear weapons from the whole of Europe and a change to NATO’s nuclear strategy. As an MP Koenders wanted to ensure that NATO would never be the first party to a conflict to use nuclear weapons, by means of what is known as a 'no first use declaration’. Now he himself sits at the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he can make the difference.
'The Council of Europe must make better use of the possibilities that it has to act against the current crisis in Ukraine and the threat of a new Cold War. Too much is now being left to the European Union and the United States, who are clearly not in a position to bring about reconciliation. A treaty organisation of which every European country is a member has the right to call those members to account over their obligations under the treaty in order to preserve peace and protect wellbeing.’ So said SP Senator Tiny Kox following discussions in Brussels.
For the 20th time in succession the European Court of Auditors has responded negatively to the European Commission’s budgetary accounts. The Court of Auditors’ report is alarming. With the revelations of a large number of irregularities at the Commission it is becoming ever clearer that for some time not all of the money has gone where it was intended to go.