Global Glimpses

The Panama Papers document leak shed much light on a deep and pervasive effort to evade taxes. Since then, the European Union has passed a number of new rules to improve tax transparency and close tax loopholes. According to CW’s Paul Hodgson, the EU is only just getting started.

The European Union and the tech industry are locked in a perpetual struggle over taxation, but the EU is making moves to close certain tax avoidance avenues for good.

Hill

Nov. 12—The new EU commissioner for financial services has pledged to continue implementing numerous reforms sparked by the 2008 financial collapse, but cautioned lawmakers to assess the effect new regulations have on growth and jobs. Jonathan Hill, commissioner for financial stability, financial services, and capital markets union, said in a speech to the Commission last week that his top priorities would be implementing agreed-upon measures as well as pushing forward with an integrated single market for capital. “There can be no going back to the old, pre-crisis ways,” Hill said during his Brussels speech. More inside.

Hooijer

Nov. 19—The head of corporate governance for the European Commission, Jeroen Hooijer, said at a recent conference in the Netherlands that the Commission could put a proposal to revise the European Union’s shareholder rights rules before lawmakers by next summer. The proposal was unveiled last spring and calls for new voting rights for shareholders on executive pay and related-party transactions, as well as for efforts to better identify and engage shareholders. Hooijer said some of the provisions may encounter friction because “member states tend to already have their own, different rules, with which they’re already comfortable.” More inside.