International

The Finance Ministers who last Friday put the Greeks under extreme pressure to push on with the old neoliberal policies of the Troika came at one point under the influence of the Tsipras government, the first Greek government to really want to deal with tax evasion and corruption. Not only in Greece, but throughout Europe, prosperous people and companies ought at last for once pay their taxes and contribute their share to the costs of restoring employment and attacking poverty. In Paris this week we will be meeting with other parliamentarians from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – the group that represents developed countries – to discuss international measures to combat tax evasion. My aim is to have MPs from across the world commit themselves to a sort of manifesto and form a permanent pressure group demanding action.

Chaired by Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Eurogroup consists to a large extent of politicians convinced of the need to make the state as small as possible in order to give the market space and thus keep the burdens on business as light as possible. This ideology of small government has already destroyed a great deal, bringing chaos to what are in essence public services – health care, public transport, education etc.) and devastating social provisions. So the fact that these same ministers want now to put an end to tax evasion is remarkable. But as someone in Brussels said to me recently, only if we keep the people informed about corporate abuses, such as in the case of Starbucks or Google, will the ministers really act, because tackling tax evasion stands in complete contradiction to their ideology.

You shouldn’t expect miracles in relation to tax evasion from initiatives from Brussels. If the European Union alone were to take measures to stop tax evasion, it would be a simple matter for multinationals to dodge them. There are enough countries outside the EU keen to cooperate on shady constructions. So an agreement within the OECD is in essence a lot more important than what happens in Brussels. In Paris, the entire industrialised world is represented and if the agreements made there were implemented the multinationals would have nowhere to turn.

During the last few months the European Commission has been beating its chest about how tax evasion would be swept out of the EU. I don’t have much faith in this. After all, the Commission is headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, who from his position in Luxembourg cooperated with tax evaders, while Brussels’ real agenda is quite different; they are looking at last to seize control of tax policy, which has to date been a purely national responsibility, in the hands of the member states. In Paris the OECD is less concerned with such side issues. The organisations’ secretariat is made up of bright people, specialists in their field, but these people are content to be of service and aren’t looking to take the place of national parliaments.

Next week, an interparliamentary network against tax evasion established on my initiative will gather in Paris to hear the latest results from the OECD, decisions to which we will certainly hold both the organisation’s secretariat and its member states. In my opinion we will create a manifesto to which every participating MP and MEP will commit, not settling for half measures. Multinationals and billionaires will simply have to pay their taxes and we will be there to help.