(14 November 2013) EPSU has been at the forefront of the popular outcry for better and fairer taxation long before the financial and economic crisis. However, it is against the backdrop of the economic and social crisis we have intensified our campaign for tax justice. Together with many other European trade union organisations we are mobilising for the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) and rally against tax fraud and tax avoidance. Not just because we are the most representative European trade union organisation representing workers in taxation but because we believe in a more equal society where everyone has to pay their fair share.
Our campaigning has been very successful at the European level. Both the European Parliament and the European Commission have came out in favour of a new financial tax, the FTT, inspired also by civil society organisations that have campaigned for a Tobin Tax over many years. This campaign has paid off and 11 EU countries agreed to cooperate to introduce an FTT. Although there is still much headway to be made, for instance for a global FTT, a fight in which we engage together with our Global Union, Public Services International (PSI), the fact that there is a consensus in Brussels and in many capitals in favour of fairer taxation represents progress and is to be welcomed!
The problem with this kind of consensus is that many agree but very few take the necessary concrete steps to implement such new ideas. Maybe because the financial sector has kept up its lobbying against it or maybe because politicians re-shift their priorities under pressure of opinions polls and others.
We cannot give up though! So therefore, EPSU, once again, together with its allies is launching a new effort to get the FTT back on the agenda and this time to ensure that money is collected very soon from speculation to be used for Quality Public Services! We invite all our readers to sign the petition that we have helped to develop together with the Austrian Chamber of Labour, the Austrian trade unions, the British trade unions, as well as our civil society allies.
We need a final push to ensure that the 11 governments that have agreed on the FTT stick with it! So, please once again, sign the petition at www.financialtransactiontax.eu
Yours
Carola Fischbach-Pyttel
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