Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-05-21-Speech-2-039-000"
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"en.20130521.5.2-039-000"2
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"Mr President, could I just say that the obsession with the length of time of this Council meeting disturbs me somewhat? I am not convinced that a meeting of ten hours is better than a meeting of two, and I sometimes think that, even in our own work in Parliament, with the length of the meeting we often get a worse outcome. So let us be practical about this.
There are two very real issues on the agenda for this short meeting of two hours, but that does not mean that great progress can be made. The first is on energy, and there have been many comments made about this energy debate. It is crucial if Europe is to talk about reindustrialisation that we get our energy mix right and that we get our energy costs down. That will be a huge challenge, but I also want to add to it the issue of fuel poverty and the cost of fuel for low-income households. Others have mentioned the need to look at an energy and climate policy that address both those issues. I am not sure we have got that balance right, but I think that tomorrow’s meeting should at least start and perhaps reach some conclusions on that particular point.
On the second issue on the agenda, tax fraud and tax havens: tax fraud is a crime. If we want to detect crimes we need good policing, so we need good financial policing to detect these frauds within our Member States and across the European Union. There was some schoolboy sniggering here about olive oil. Let us be clear on that particular issue: that is about fraud, a food fraud, and I think that the measures taken on that are required.
On the tax issue, however, let us be clear that the OECD has a definition for a tax haven and it is worth recalling what it is: first, that a country has no taxes or only nominal taxes, and second, that there is a lack of transparency. The third indicator is an unwillingness to exchange information, and we know that that is crucial with tax administrations; and the fourth indicator is an absence of substantial activity requirements.
We have a definition. Let us apply that if we can at European Union level, and let us get that one trillion working within the Union to create jobs and tackle youth unemployment."@en1
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