EU

Today the European Parliament adopted the report by its Panama Papers inquiry committee and voted in favor of recommendations aimed at stopping corporate tax avoidance across the European Union. Oxfam welcomes the Parliament's call for EU member states to adopt the reforms needed to end corporate tax abuses.

The Greek government has said it intends to transfer 5,000 people from the Greek islands to the mainland before the start of winter. This is a very positive step that will save lives, but thousands remain at risk from freezing conditions and the Greek government and EU must end the containment policy immediately, Oxfam said.

A proposal by the European Parliament’s industry committee on the use of biofuels risks increasing emissions in transport, pushing up global food prices and negatively impacting people around the world who live from the land, Oxfam and green NGO Transport & Environment warn.

The upcoming EU tax haven blacklist has to include at least 35 countries, including notorious tax havens such as Switzerland and Bermuda, in order to be effective, Oxfam finds in a new report published today. The analysis also shows that at least 4 EU countries would be blacklisted if the EU were to apply its own criteria to member states.

Europe's new plan for investing in Africa will see EU development support being channelled through private companies. Here we look at what the EU must do to ensure those funds actually go to the people aid is meant to help.

The EU has decided its budget for 2018 with cuts long-term development aid that helps the poorest people. A coalition of development NGOs criticised the EU for putting its own short-term interests ahead of the people most in need.

The European Commission has shown yet again how EU governments grant unfair tax schemes to powerful multinationals, Oxfam said reacting to the opeing of a new investigation into a UK tax scheme that exempts multinational companies from an important anti-tax avoidance measure.

A coalition of NGOs has welcomed the European Parliament's vote to increase humanitarian and development aid in the EU budget 2018, but call on the EU to ensure aid money really goes to those who need it most.

In a key committee vote on the reform of the EU bioenergy policy, the European Parliament has improved the reform proposal, but Oxfam says it does not do enough to end the EU's bioenergy policy's destructive effects on the climate and on people worldwide.