Inequality is deepening, but Ireland can push for it to be addressed during EU Presidency

Ireland assumes the presidency at a moment of deepening inequality in Europe, with extreme wealth continuing to grow while many households face rising living costs and public services are under increasing pressure.

Recent Oxfam research shows Europe faces a deep inequality crisis: the richest 1% in the EU own nearly a quarter of all wealth while half the population shares just 3%. Decades of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations has resulted in the super rich paying proportionally less taxes than ordinary citizens, eroding fairness, democracy, and social cohesion.

These inequalities are reinforced by unequal care systems, where unpaid and underpaid care work — carried out predominantly by women and girls — continues to subsidise economies, compensate for gaps in public services, and sustain households and communities without adequate recognition, redistribution or investment.

There a number of ways Ireland can help address this during its presidency:

- It can champion EU engagement on a new International Panel on Inequality

- It can support an ambitious EU position on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation especially related to effective taxation of the super wealthy and fair taxation of corporate cross border services

- It can ensure that the EU Tax Omnibus Bill strengthens, rather than weakens tax avoidance measures

- And it can position tax as a lever to reduce inequality and finance public goods.

International Panel on Inequality

Last year the Extraordinary Committee of the G20 led by Professor Joseph Stiglitz, commissioned a report that identified a global inequality emergency, on a par with the climate emergency. The report shows how inequality undermines democracy, drives political polarisation, damages economic progress, corrodes social cohesion and contributes to climate breakdown. The core recommendation is the establishment of an International Panel on Inequality, an ‘inequality IPCC’ and is championed by a number of governments. In May 2026. Ireland joined the Global Alliance Against Inequality. Ireland should continue this work by promoting the IPI among EU Member States.

UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation

The UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation is a proposed global agreement, currently being negotiated at the UN and aims to make international tax rules fairer and more inclusive. It aims to shift global tax governance away from exclusive rich-country bodies and give all countries an equal voice in stopping profit shifting, tax evasion, and illicit financial flows. This process has come about as most countries in the world have recognised that the OECD BEPS process has not achieved a fair global tax system. Ireland should support an ambitious EU position on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to ensure, in particular, that it supports effective taxation of high-net worth individuals and a fair taxation of corporate cross border services in an inclusive way.

EU Tax Omnibus

As Presidency holder, Ireland will play a role in steering negotiations, shaping political priorities and building consensus among Member States on tax and economic files. Ireland has identified competitiveness as a Presidency priority. However, long-term competitiveness cannot be built on deregulation or tax systems that allow extreme wealth accumulation and aggressive tax avoidance to continue unchecked.

The Irish Presidency will be responsible for advancing discussions on the Commission’s proposal for a Tax Omnibus, including revisions to the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD), the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (PSD) and the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC). As with other omnibus processes, there is a significant risk, that this drive for simplification could lead to deregulation and weaken the transparency and taxation rules that underpin Member States’ tax bases. The Irish Presidency should seek to ensure that the Omnibus closes the loopholes that allows the wealthiest individuals to escape their financial obligations by including the vehicles they use most: passive holding companies, opaque asset structures and cross-border information gaps.

Tax as a lever to reduce inequality and finance public goods

The ongoing EU budgetary negotiations (the Multiannual Financial Framework-MFF), against the backdrop of the volatile global energy prices, are an opportunity to push for progressive own resources to fund the MFF, including through wealth related taxation reform and measures and a permanent tax on windfall profits of energy companies. The Irish Presidency should also facilitate a dialogue to introduce a taxation on fossil fuel excess profit taxes, consistent with the EU’s climate and social objectives.