EU

Despite EU intentions to crack down on tax avoidance, the European Commission’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Package does not do what it says on the tin, warns Oxfam, and developing countries will feel the EU’s failure most.

Letter outlining Oxfam's position and demands regarding corporate tax avoidance and an external strategy of the EU on tax good governance.

Runaway inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population combined, according to an Oxfam report published today ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s financial and political elites in Davos.

Oxfam is dismayed by the results of the European summit, which has strengthened a security-led approach to border control as the principal response of Europe to the plight of people arriving at its borders.

Europe is facing unacceptable levels of poverty and inequality. This briefing paper reviews the current situation and presents recommendations to help put an end to poverty and extreme inequality in Europe.

European states insisting on emerging countries providing their ‘fair share’ while continuously failing to reach their own aid targets is a backward step. 

European Governments are increasingly relying on bioenergy as a cheap way to meet targets for renewable energy. Bioenergy represented 62% of EU’s renewable energy use in 2012. But new evidence on the real climate impacts and other environmental and social impacts of bioenergy has made its use increasingly controversial. 

Europe’s leaders have just missed a crucial opportunity to make a real difference in the lives and deaths of the people suffering daily in the Mediterranean. Instead of heeding calls to restore immediately a search-and-rescue operation in the Mediterranean, the EU has chosen to focus on its border control operation.