Renowned economists, activists, committed millionaires and politicians on Thursday tabled a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling for a European wealth tax on the richest 1%, a procedure that could force Brussels to position itself.
Leading figures from seven European countries today tabled a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling on the European Union (EU) to adopt a permanent annual tax on the largest fortunes in Europesaid in a statement to the NGO Oxfam, itself a signatory.
The goal? Raise funds to reduce poverty and inequality at home and in poorer countries, and to tackle the climate crisis, explains the association, estimating that an annual tax on wealth up to 5% for European billionaires could bring in around 250 billion euros per year.
Objective 250 billion euros per year
The European Citizens’ Initiative is a mechanism that allows European citizens to ask the Commission to propose new laws. If the Commission validates the admissibility of this citizens’ initiative in the coming month, its initiators would have one year from July to collect one million signatures across seven EU countries.
If successful, the Commission would then have three months to react: it could decide to follow up and initiate a legislative procedure, or should at the very least give reasons in detail for a possible refusal.
The wealth of the richest under-taxes, or even not imposes
Among the initiators of the ICE is the French economist Thomas Piketty. Quoted in the press release from Oxfam, he points out that Europe is becoming less and less egalitarian, with a large part of the wealth of the richest being under-taxed, or even not taxed.
EU institutions can change this if they listen to their citizens, he insists, calling for making our tax system fairer by introducing a progressive wealth tax in Europe.
9 initiatives submitted out of 123 requests
At the end of May 2023, the Commission had received 123 requests to launch a European citizens’ initiative since the creation of this mechanism in 2011 and had validated 101 of them, paving the way for the collection of signatures.
So far, only nine initiatives have reached the required threshold of one million signatures and have therefore been submitted to the Commission. The latest aimed to stop cage farming, protect bees, defend cosmetics produced without cruel treatment to animals or even ban the trade in shark fins.
Reproduction forbidden.