 Hi there. In this video, we talk about how we can stop tax evasion in the EU. Taxation is the main source to finance the essentials of a just society. All of us contribute, through direct or indirect taxes, to the funding of public infrastructure and services that we can benefit from in return. Proper roads, efficient public transport, free care or school education for children and much more. A functioning tax system can guarantee a decent quality of life for all, based on the principle of solidarity, which means that those who are more also give back more to society. However, the EU is losing annually hundreds of billions of euros in tax revenue due to tax evasion, tax avoidance and fraud by multinational corporations and rich individuals. Here are some of the issues eroding our solidarity-based system. In general, multinationals and trusts are not obliged to disclose their income and taxes paid in different countries. The lack of transparency has led to damaging tax competition between EU members as they engage in fiscal dumping. This means that governments cut tax deals with big multinationals to attract them to do business in their country. But this is hurting competition within the EU single market. The European Commission has already proposed a country-by-country reporting of revenues, profits, taxes paid and employees for all companies and trusts to increase corporate public transparency. Large multinational tech companies use profit-shifting techniques to avoid paying their fair share in the countries where they generate revenues, although they benefit from a healthy, educated workforce and publicly funded infrastructure, including digital infrastructure. The good news is that the European Commission has proposed a common consolidated corporate tax base. This would mean that all EU countries agree on who can tax what, according to the real economic activity of the companies to put a halt to profit-shifting. Ordinary taxpayers like you and I are paying the lion's share of the costs of coping with the immediate climate change, local air pollution, congestion, accidents and road damage effects of fossil-based industries, while those industries are receiving tax breaks and subsidies amounting to billions of euros per year. NGOs have been calling for a system that holds companies accountable for their social and environmental responsibilities for many years. Massive scandals around tax evasion by using so-called tax havens to place one's money, such as LuxLeaks and the Panama Papers, have unfortunately not led to real consequences and decisive action by our policymakers, despite an increased public pressure. The EU has meanwhile published its first blacklist of tax havens, but its compilation was non-transparent, included only non-EU countries, and it was not accompanied by strong sanctions, such as cutting access to public subsidies or public procurement. After the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, too little has been done by our political leaders. We need rigid prosecution of unethical business, tax fraud and money laundering activities by banks and other financial intermediaries to regulate damaging financial speculation and so-called high-frequency trading. Important EU legislation, including the anti-money laundering directives, has been approved to promote company ownership transparency, but general corporate ownership public transparency that would also include the trusts is still not obligatory. The political will to tackle tax avoidance and evasion is lacking in EU countries, as they actually benefit from the way things are, and EU-level proposals are being blocked in the European Council. It is therefore high time that tax-related decisions do not require unanimity in the Council anymore, but can be taken with a qualified majority vote. We also need the European Parliament as directly elected by us citizens to have equal footing in the legislative process to deliver a tax system that delivers for us. It's crucial that we join forces as EU citizens to hold our policymakers accountable. With a fair taxation system based on the principles of social and environmental responsibility, solidarity between EU and third countries and transparency, we can ensure that our public infrastructure and services will guarantee a decent life for us today and for generations to come.