Pandora papers: Stop European tax dodging!

To: EU Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union Mairead McGuinness

Close the tax loopholes! Ensure member states enforce tax dodging laws, and launch infringement proceedings if they don't comply.

The recently released Pandora Papers are the biggest leak of offshore tax dodging deals in history, and hundreds of Europeans are implicated – including Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Montenegro’s President Milo Ðukanović, Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra and more.

Yet again, a world of hidden wealth hoarding by those in power has been exposed – amounting to over 370 billion euros every year – money that could be used for climate solutions, ending poverty, food security, Covid recovery, vaccination programs to prevent the next variant, and on and on.

But we need to make sure Europeans stop hiding money in tax havens, once and for all. Critics say Europe has actually been moving backwards in the fight against tax evasion.

In the words of Oxfam’s EU tax expert: the decision to "delist Anguilla, the only remaining jurisdiction with a 0% tax rate, and the Seychelles, which are at the heart of the latest tax scandal, renders the EU’s blacklist a joke."

This is the time to optimise on the millions of eyes watching the Pandora Papers scandal – and waiting to see how our political structures respond. Europe needs to show leadership, or the rich elite will keep sheltering their money while the world burns.

Let's come together to demand the European Finance Commissioner does everything possible to make the super rich pay their fair share. Are you with us?