Tax Havens: EU blacklist of tax havens is a sham says EPSU

After months of screening some 90 jurisdictions and countries  in light of EC criteria of lack of transparency and harmful tax measures such as 0 or near 0 corporate tax rates, EU Finance Ministers have  agreed  a tiny  list of 17 countries: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates are the countries listed, officials said.

The second list includes countries like EU candidates Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Morocco, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

It also includes entities that are considered as being among the main tax havens but which have promised to change their legislation: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands as well as UK-associated Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Eight countries and territories recently hit by hurricanes - Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, US Virgin Islands - were given a grace period until February to come up with commitments.

The list excludes the most active harmful tax countries or jurisdictions including Benelux, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Switzerland, British channel islands,  US Delaware, Singapore or  Hong-Kong. Even Bermuda, that hosts the Paradise’s offshore services firm Appleby, did not make it to the list.

Jan Willem Goudriaan, General Secretary of EPSU, said “This tax havens list is a big sham. EU Finance Ministers have failed to agree a  coherent and transparent blacklist with deterring sanctions to make it effective. Coupled with the cuts in corporate taxes in many EU countries, today’s decision means that tax competition in and outside Europe will continue to run the show at the expense of workers’ wages and quality public services. 

It also means that trade unions, NGOs, investigative journalists and whistleblowers will need to  continue to do the transparency job that governments are not willing to do.”

Nick Crook, head of international for the UK's largest public services trade union UNISON said: “It’s disappointing that this list fails to name some of the world’s biggest tax haven offenders. The international community needs to do much more to tackle tax avoidance, and offshore tax scams that are happening on a grand scale. The richest individuals in our society should be making the biggest contribution to our public services –  not hiding money abroad, and shirking their obligations”

On the international scene, as tax rules for the digital economy are being discussed, this list is a sign that the  EU is losing its credibility on fair tax.

EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC and comprises 8 million public service workers from over 260 trade unions; EPSU organises workers in the energy, water and waste sectors, health and social services and local, regional and central government, in all European countries including the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood. EPSU is the recognized regional organization of Public Services International (PSI). For more information please go to: http://www.epsu.org

EU-Digest

Brexit: Britain and EU fail to strike Brexit talks deal

The UK and EU have failed to reach an agreement to move to the next stage of Brexit talks, Theresa May has said.

The prime minister said talks would reconvene "before the end of the week" and she was "confident we will conclude this positively".

The talks are understood to have broken down after the Democratic Unionist Party refused to accept concessions on the Irish border issue.

Downing Street said that was not the only outstanding problem.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said a deal had been done, but the UK appeared to change its mind over the Irish border question after pressure from the DUP.

"I am surprised and disappointed that the British government now appears not to be in a position to conclude what was agreed earlier today," he told a press conference in Dublin.T

Read more: Britain and EU fail to strike Brexit talks deal - BBC News

EU-Africa agree on repatriating migrants, but not on the bill – by Cécile Barbière

African and European countries have adopted a special joint declaration on Libya and said they want to repatriate migrants stranded in Libya to their countries of origin. But the question of who should pay for it has been carefully avoided.

This is perhaps the only concrete action taken at the EU-Africa Summit, which ended on Thursday (30 November) in Abidjan. Some 3,800 African migrants stranded in Libya in inhumane conditions will be repatriated urgently to their country of origin.

These migrants detained in Tripoli recently received a visit from the African Union commissionner for social affairs, Amira El Fadil, who was able to witness firsthand the catastrophic conditions in detention centres.

These thousands of people will be returned by flights made available by the Moroccan and European authorities. “But this is only one detention camp, while the Libyan government has counted 42, and there may be more,” said the President of the Commission of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat.

The number of African migrants stranded in Libya is estimated at between 400,000 and 700,000, according to the Mahamat.

The announcement concluded a summit focused on the plight of migrants stranded in Libya, while the announced agenda was dedicated to youth, investment, good governance, migration and security.

EU-Africa agree on repatriating migrants, but not on the bill – EURACTIV.com

The Netherlands: Health : One in four people in the Netherlands is affected by a brain condition - says study

As many as one person in four has some form of brain condition, but many cases go undetected because people do not seek medical help, according to the public health agency RIVM.

A new study found that 3.8 million people are registered with their family doctor with a brain disorder.

Half have a psychological condition such as depression or anxiety, while 1.3 million suffer from chronic illnesses such as dementia or Parkinson’s disease. Sleep disorders, which affect around half a million people, brain injuries and inherited problems such as learning difficulties are also classed as brain disorders in the study carried out on behalf of the Netherlands Brain Foundation (NBF).

Women are more likely to have a diagnosed brain disorder than men, with around 2.1 million cases in women. However, the RIVM said the actual figures are likely to be much higher because many people do not seek medical treatment.

The total cost of treating brain conditions is around €25 billion a year, which represents more than a quarter of all health spending in the Netherlands. The NBF said it had commissioned the study to highlight the fact that many disorders are invisible.

‘The next step is to tackle the issue through research, but also by improving treatment for patients in the hope that it will drive the costs down,’ said neuroscientist Laura Rigter.

Read more: One in four people in the Netherlands is affected by a brain condition - study - DutchNews.nl

EU-US Relations: After a year of Trump, good news for Europe – he doesn’t care about us - by Natalie Nougayrède

One year on, what has been the impact of Donald Trump on Europe? How have governments reacted to him? Though the scenario once feared of a populist tidal wave unleashed on the continent by Trump’s victory in the US did not materialise, it would be naive to think Europe’s problems have disappeared.

Still, much has changed in that year. Remember how, on the day of Trump’s election, the leader of the French far-right, Marine Le Pen, tweeted elatedly: “Congratulations to the American people, free!” Florian Philippot, one of her close aides, cast the US political earthquake as a portent for liberal Europe: “Their world is crumbling,” he said. “Ours is being built.” One year on, not only has Le Pen suffered defeat at the ballot box, but she now finds herself struggling: her party split, her credibility in shambles.

Meanwhile, a young, centrist French president makes sweeping speeches on rejuvenating Europe’s unique brand of democracy – market economy and social justice combined – as opposed to US market economy without social justice, and China’s state capitalism without either social justice or democracy. Emmanuel Macron’s election and Angela Merkel’s re-election (even if weakened) can indeed both be read as a response to Trump; proof that Europe can stabilize rather than break apart.

Read more: After a year of Trump, good news for Europe – he doesn’t care about us | Natalie Nougayrède | Opinion | The Guardian

THE EU NEEDS A FRIENDLY DIVORCE FROM THE US: "before Donald Trump finalizes building his Autocracy in the U.S."

Is the Trump Autocracy becoming a reality? 

David Frum recently wrote in the ATLANTIC : "Ii’s 2021, and President Donald Trump will shortly be sworn in for his second term. The 45th president has visibly aged over the past four years. He rests heavily on his daughter Ivanka’s arm during his infrequent public appearances".

"Fortunately for him, he did not need to campaign hard for reelection. His has been a popular presidency: Big tax cuts, big spending, and big deficits have worked their familiar expansive magic. Wages have grown strongly in the Trump years, especially for men without a college degree, even if rising inflation is beginning to bite into the gains. The president’s supporters credit his restrictive immigration policies and his TrumpWorks infrastructure program".

"The president’s critics, meanwhile, have found little hearing for their protests and complaints. A Senate investigation of Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential campaign sputtered into inconclusive partisan wrangling. Concerns about Trump’s purported conflicts of interest excited debate in Washington but never drew much attention from the wider American public".

"Allegations of fraud and self-dealing in the TrumpWorks program, and elsewhere, have likewise been shrugged off. The president regularly tweets out news of factory openings and big hiring announcements: “I’m bringing back your jobs,” he has said over and over. Voters seem to have believed him—and are grateful".

"Most Americans intuit that their president and his relatives have become vastly wealthier over the past four years. But rumors of graft are easy to dismiss. Because Trump has never released his tax returns, no one really knows".

"Anyway, doesn’t everybody do it? On the eve of the 2018 congressional elections, WikiLeaks released years of investment statements by prominent congressional Democrats indicating that they had long earned above-market returns. As the air filled with allegations of insider trading and crony capitalism, the public subsided into weary cynicism. The Republicans held both houses of Congress that November, and Trump loyalists shouldered aside the pre-Trump leadership"

"Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from within fortified compounds have never understood how liberty is actually threatened in a modern bureaucratic state: not by diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of corruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended is not with amateur firearms, but with an unwearying insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institutions and those who lead them. We are living through the most dangerous challenge to the free government of the United States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is up to you and me. Don’t be afraid. This moment of danger can also be your finest hour as a citizen and an American."

Note EU-Digest: Our European political leaders should take the time to read this excellent article from the Atlantic and act upon it, before they and the people of Europe, get sucked into this rapidly developing US quagmire.

Read the full report re: the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism.


EU-Digest

The Netherlands - Security Services Fail: Bosnian Croat leader Slobodan Praljak dies after drinking poison in UN war crimes court in the Hague

Bosnian Croat ex-General Slobodan Praljak died Wednesday evening after drinking poison at a UN court hearing in The Hague.

"One of the six defendants ... passed away today in the HMC hospital in The Hague," said court spokesman Nenad Golcevski.

Earlier, judges part of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)  had rejected the 72-year-old's appeal against his 20-year prison sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Upon hearing the verdict, Praljak yelled: "Judges, Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. I reject the verdict with contempt."

He then drank from a small glass bottle and told the courtroom: "What I drank was poison."

The presiding judge called for medical assistance and ordered the session to be closed to the public.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has described the verdict as "unjust" and offered his condolences to Praljak's family.

Note EU-Digest: the death of Slobodan Pralja by his own hand (drinking a potent poison) inside the International Court of Justice during the hearings, puts a major blemish on the Dutch security services, not only for the fact that this poison was smuggled into the prison where Mr. Slobodan Pralja was incarcerated, but also for allowing the defendant to take this poison into the courtroom. 

It was reported the Dutch Ministry of Justice has launched an immediate investigation into this tragic matter.
  
Read more: Bosnian Croat leader Slobodan Praljak dies after drinking poison in UN war crimes court | News | DW | 29.11.2017