Europe

Ahead of European interior ministers meeting in Brussels today to discuss progress on EU migration and asylum policy, Oxfam denounces plans to make EU countries commit to a “voluntary, simple and predictable solidarity mechanism”.

On the eve of Climate Finance Day, an international finance event held annually in Paris, BNP Paribas – the number one financier of fossil fuel expansion in Europe and fifth in the world - was given three months to comply with the French duty of vigilance law. This legal action was taken by the NGOs Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous. This is the first step towards an unprecedented climate litigation case - the first in the world to target a commercial bank for its high-risk activities in the oil and gas sector.

The global repercussions of the Ukraine crisis ―already being felt in fast-rising food, commodity and energy prices― could undermine official aid efforts to help people in other humanitarian hot-spots. 

Today, EU migration ministers meet to discuss the Commission’s proposal to activate the temporary protection directive for people fleeing the crisis in Ukraine. If activated, the directive would allow those fleeing from Ukraine, access to a residence permit for up to three years along with access to education and employment in any EU country.

Developing countries have been hit with an endless tide of inadequate gestures and broken promises from rich countries and pharmaceutical companies, who are failing to deliver billions of doses they promised while blocking the real solutions to vaccine inequality, according to a new report published today by the People’s Vaccine Alliance. 

Today, Tuesday 5 October, European economic and finance ministers met to approve an update to the EU’s list of tax havens. This comes in the midst of the unfolding Pandora papers scandal and global tax negotiations. 

Thirty-two of the world’s largest companies stand to see their profits jump by $109 billion more in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare an economic model that delivers profits for the wealthiest on the back of the poorest, according to a new Oxfam report today.

Over 50 leading financiers have expressed their support for a European Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) ahead of a meeting of Finance Ministers in Brussels next week. In an open letter to European leaders, the financiers argue the FTT will reduce financial instability and raise significant additional government revenue.

Europe’s 20 biggest banks are registering over a quarter of their profits in tax havens – well out of proportion to the level of real economic activity that occurs there, according to a new report by Oxfam and the Fair Finance Guide International today.

Global ballet star Irina Kolesnikova aims to show how art can respond to one of Europe’s most urgent crises with a new dance production set in a refugee camp following trip to Western Balkans with Oxfam.