Euroactiv: 'The EU needs to tax the wealthiest and financial transactions'

• Euractiv

The new own resources package due to be published by the EU Commission on 20 June should include a tax on the wealthiest and on financial transactions, argue David Cormand, Rasmus Andresen, Monika Vana, Damien Carême and Claude Gruffat.

The authors are members of the Greens group in the European Parliament, who expressed their views in an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

Today, we’re at a momentum the likes of which the European Union has rarely experienced.

After concluding a common borrowing on behalf of the 27 member states to counter the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe finds itself confronted on its own soil with a war in which we must support Ukraine in every possible way, starting with financial support.

At the same time, Europe is expected to lead the continent’s necessary ecological transition. It must also take into account the need to support Europe’s most fragile citizens and those most exposed to the consequences of these challenges.

However, given the resources we need to respond to these emergencies and challenges, one can only realise that the European Union’s coffers are empty.

The inevitable question is then: who will pay?

Recourse to debt cannot be the only answer, nor is it a solution on which there is much consensus.

The other option, if we remain passive, is to reduce the Union’s ordinary budget, which is already too low. This is clearly unacceptable.

We therefore need to show unprecedented and absolute voluntarism if we are really to meet the challenges of our time: a new, fairer model of taxation.

There can be no climate, ecological, economic or social justice without tax justice.

How can we still legitimise wealth levels that are so concentrated in the hands of a few, when, for example, a third of French people live on 100 euros after the 10th of the month?

And above all, how can we accept the fact that the richer a person is, the less tax they pay?

Numerous calls are emerging in Europe and around the world to (finally) make the big multinationals and the richest people contribute, as they accumulate colossal fortunes without paying their fair share of taxes.

The aim is nothing less than to make those who got rich during the crisis – starting with fossil fuel companies, digital multinationals and the very rich – pay their fair share. Some of the world’s most renowned economists are calling for this. This demand is becoming increasingly consensual. Its acceptability has never been so high.

The European Union must live up to this expectation and create a new tax system based on taxing the wealthiest and taxing financial transactions. At a time when the world’s stock markets are exploding, and the sums involved are astronomical, their holders need to come back down to earth and contribute to the real economy.

This tax is popular, fair, and in no way alters the day-to-day economy. It already exists in several EU countries, and harmonizing it across the 27 requires only political courage.

Madam President, Commissioner, we MEPs urge you to include these new forms of taxation in the next proposal for EU own resources.

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