EU minnows who specialise in finance ‘not tax havens’ says Sant

Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant has told the European Parliament that EU member states specialising in the financial services industry cannot be accused that they have become ‘tax haven’, in a speech following the presentation of the ‘Tax policy-decision adopted on the Tax Transparency policy’ by Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

“Suddenly it’s as if countries which specialise in the provision of financial services should be considered a threat to the integrity of the EU… We have witnessed big public relations and political exercises to project the unacceptable activities of ‘tax havens’ in Europe and elsewhere. Beyond obvious excesses in tax adjudication which cannot be justified – no matter who does them and how – these exercises have actually targeted the financial services sectors of a number of EU member states. Most of them, with the exception of the UK, are among the European minnows,” Sant said.

The Labour MEP said that financial services remained “necessary in a globalising world which has accepted neoliberal rules” on financial flows across nations.

Sant opposes a Tobin tax on financial transactions between countries, a general policy shared by all Maltese political parties except for Alternattiva Demokratika.

“That financial services migrate towards given countries and not others reflects an international division of labour without which some countries would be perpetually in growth mode, others in perpetual stagnation. Increasingly, it is taken for granted that there must be something shady in policies which encourage the provision of financial services. To claim that the provision of financial services implies the encouragement of tax avoidance or even evasion, is manifestly false,” Alfred Sant said.