Green MEPs secure parliamentary inquiry into Panama Papers

1 June 2016

Green MEP Molly Scott Cato has today welcomed a European Parliamentary inquiry into the Panama Papers which is expected to be announced tomorrow. The leaked Panama Papers exposed wide scale tax avoidance and financial secrecy by wealthy elites.

As the Green Party’s economics spokesperson and the tax affairs spokesperson for the Greens in the European Parliament, Molly Scott Cato welcomed the inquiry highlighting how the Greens have been instrumental in establishing it since the Panama Papers were uncovered in April [1].

Soon after the leak of the Panama Papers Molly Scott Cato also launched an online petition which received over half a million signatures calling for EU institutions to prosecute the banks that let their clients hide their assets in tax havens and do not report suspected European citizens to tax authorities[2].

Commenting on the parliamentary inquiry Molly said:

“The setting up of an inquiry is a great gain by Greens in the European Parliament. It will move us closer to holding corporations and wealthy individuals to account. We have for months been pressing hard for a proper investigation into the Panama papers and our hard work has paid off.

She continued,

The best way to tackle tax avoidance is at EU level. It is clear that corporations have been exploiting loopholes between countries to avoid paying their taxes. This is an international problem that needs an international solution. We believe European cooperation is essential to combat corporate tax avoidance. The UK would be is in a stronger position to tackle tax avoidance by staying in the EU. This is another argument for why we are stronger together inside the EU”.

 

[1] http://www.greens-efa.eu/panama-papers-15406.html

[2] https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-mp-panamapapers-shut-down-shell-companies-sanction-the-banks

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