Proposal for a United Nations Convention on Tax

In the midst of a very difficult economic situation, it has never been more urgent to repair our broken tax system, including by addressing large-scale corporate tax avoidance. Instead of removing the tax loopholes related to debt financing, the European Commission is instead suggesting the introduction of new tax incentives related to equity financing, which could potentially open up new avenues for corporate tax avoidance.

Call for decision-making to shift to the UN: “the most democratic global governance space we have.”

A group of 17 CSOs has issued an open letter to G20 Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors and the IMF calling for a new US$2.5 trillion issuance of reserve assets called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and reformed criteria for distributing them in a fairer way and according to needs.

On 1 January a new development branch of the European Investment Bank (EIB) went into operation. This was approved by the bank’s Board of Directors in September 2021, following relatively limited conversations on how to improve the European architecture for development. This branch aims to reorganise the EIB’s activities outside the European Union and enhance engagement with external partners through the provision of targeted strategies and services. 

As many countries welcomed in the new year they were also hit by Omicron, yet another even more infectious variant of the Coronavirus. The world is once again faced with the common challenge of dealing with a new turn in the pandemic.

Intended by the IMF as a means to redistribute rich countries’ unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the current design of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust indicates that it is far from a magic bullet. Instead, it may reproduce the inequalities of the current system and award the IMF additional powers outside of its mandate.