Motion for a resolution | Doc. 12516 | 02 February 2011

Promoting an appropriate policy on tax-havens

Signatories: Mr Dirk Van der MAELEN, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Lord Donald ANDERSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Mörður ÁRNASON, Iceland, SOC ; Mr Lennart AXELSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Doris BARNETT, Germany, SOC ; Mr Joe BENTON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Márton BRAUN, Hungary, EPP/CD ; Mr Joan CARTES IVERN, Andorra, SOC ; Mr Guy COËME, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Michael CONNARTY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Titus CORLĂŢEAN, Romania, SOC ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Tuur ELZINGA, Netherlands, UEL ; Mr Gvozden Srećko FLEGO, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Cindy FRANSSEN, Belgium, EPP/CD ; Mr Obrad GOJKOVIĆ, Montenegro, SOC ; Mr Andreas GROSS, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Håkon HAUGLI, Norway, SOC ; Mr Jim HOOD, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Albrecht KONEČNÝ, Austria, SOC ; Mr Philippe MAHOUX, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Grigori MARGARYAN, Armenia, ALDE ; Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, Switzerland, SOC ; Ms Ana Catarina MENDES, Portugal, SOC ; Mr Patrick MORIAU, Belgium, SOC ; Ms Hermine NAGHDALYAN, Armenia, ALDE ; Mr Adrian NĂSTASE, Romania, SOC ; Ms Sandra OSBORNE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Tudor PANŢIRU, Romania, SOC ; Ms Maria Pilar RIBA FONT, Andorra, SOC ; Ms Maria de Belém ROSEIRA, Portugal, SOC ; Mr Ludo SANNEN, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Kimmo SASI, Finland, EPP/CD ; Mr Jim SHERIDAN, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Tineke STRIK, Netherlands, SOC ; Mr Stefaan VERCAMER, Belgium, EPP/CD ; Mr Klaas de VRIES, Netherlands, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The wide-scale use of tax havens makes it possible to avoid and evade taxes and as such is an infringement of fiscal justice.

Tax havens permit the illegal flight of capital and corruption by allowing dictators and their political entourages to appropriate billions of dollars from international aid and other sources of public finance and deposit them in secret bank accounts in these places.

The establishment of complex and dubious financial structures that lack transparency encourages the creation of tax havens. Tax havens are therefore also one of the causes of the recent financial crisis.

International organisations such as the United Nations and the OECD, as well as the G20, are attempting to secure better international agreements and stress the need for effective national policies to stem the harmful influence of tax havens.

The Parliamentary Assembly is invited to consider the problem of tax havens and address recommendations to the member states by asking them to produce the outlines of an appropriate policy.