Closing down tax havens and imposing taxes on currency transactions
24.10.2001
ORAL QUESTION O-0098/01
pursuant to Rule 42 of the Rules of Procedure
by Harlem Désir, Glyn Ford, Reino Paasilinna, Pierre Jonckheer, Danielle Auroi, Anne Ferreira, Evelyne Gebhardt, Neena Gill, Hans-Peter Martin, Stephen Hughes, Eryl McNally, Richard Howitt, Arlene McCarthy, David Bowe, Johannes Voggenhuber, Bart Staes, Patsy Sörensen, Elisabeth Schroedter, Matti Wuori, Yves Piétrasanta, Gérard Onesta, Hélène Flautre, Didier Rod, Claude Turmes, Jean Lambert, Inger Schörling, Véronique De Keyser, Olivier Duhamel, Geneviève Fraisse, Danielle Darras, Catherine Guy-Quint, Carlos Carnero González, Martine Roure, Sami Naïr, Olga Zrihen, Miguel Martínez Martínez, Göran Färm, Jan Andersson, Maj Theorin, Hans Karlsson, Hans Bullmann, Francisca Sauquillo Pérez del Arco, Proinsias De Rossa, Giorgos Katiforis, Anna Karamanou, Alexandros Baltas, Ioannis Koukiadis, Minerva Malliori, Emmanouil Mastorakis, Ioannis Souladakis, Dimitris Tsatsos, Myrsini Zorba, Gianni Vattimo, Riitta Myller, Carlos Westendorp y Cabeza, Jean-Maurice Dehousse, Francis Wurtz, Ilda Figueiredo, Helmuth Markov, André Brie, Pedro Marset Campos, Luisa Morgantini, Salvador Jové Peres, Armando Cossutta, Herman Schmid, Philippe Herzog, Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli, Laura González Álvarez, Alonso Puerta, Luigi Vinci, Pernille Frahm, Alain Krivine, Fausto Bertinotti, Fodé Sylla, Joaquim Miranda, Hans Modrow, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Lucio Manisco, William Abitbol, Alain Lipietz, Caroline Lucas and Anne Van Lancker
to the Council
People in the world have started to understand that in order to achieve global stability we must increase citizens’ social, economic, cultural and political rights. Equality and democracy are also antidotes to violence and terrorism.
Taxation is an important factor when increasing the power of individual countries to augment social justice and stability. This is true both within countries and between them.
For example tax havens are widely used to avoid taxes. In addition, money laundering can play an important role in organised crime and terrorism.
Does the Council therefore plan to start a process in order:
- to impose taxes on currency transactions to slow down speculation and raise revenues in favour of health, educational, social and environmental programmes in the developing countries?
- to press ahead the negociations with third countries in order to lift banking secrecy and close down tax havens and to take initiatives within the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) in order to enlarge its mandate and enforce sanctions vis-à-vis the ‘non-cooperative’ countries?
Tabled: 24.10.2001
Forwarded: 25.10.2001
Deadline for reply: 15.11.2001