#Latvia Set to Join #Euro Zone and Become a New European Tax Haven - SPIEGEL ONLINE
▻http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/latvia-set-to-join-euro-zone-and-become-a-new-european-tax-haven-a-910610.ht
Latvia will become the common currency area’s newest member in January 2014 — the same time that new tax laws go into effect allowing the country to compete with the likes of Cyprus and Malta. This could further destabilize the European economy.
(...) Riga’s planned reform has been designed to transform Latvia into the euro-zone’s next tax haven. And it highlights the degree to which rhetoric and reality diverge in the European Union.
Ever since the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposed the vast scale of tax evasion undertaken by multinationals around the world, the European Commission has made combating financial trickery a top priority. Theoretically, at least. In practice, exactly the opposite has happened. “Instead of eliminating established tax havens, we have added a new one to the euro zone,” says Sven Giegold, a financial expert with the Green Party in the European Parliament.
