Europe's values are its greatest strategic advantage – Oxfam Ireland

Ireland should use its Presidency of the Council of the European Union to demonstrate that Europe's competitiveness, security and global influence depend on defending, not diluting, the values on which the Union was founded, Oxfam Ireland said today.

Launching A Presidency Grounded in EU Values, Oxfam argues that as Ireland chairs negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Tax Omnibus and key digital policy files, Europe faces a defining political choice: finance its defence, industrial policy and strategic priorities through fair taxation and stronger democratic safeguards, or weaken rights and shift the burden onto those least able to bear it.

The report warns that the growing concentration of economic, technological and informational power is eroding trust in democratic institutions and deepening inequality. Europe's competitiveness, it argues, should rest on innovation, fair taxation and investment in public goods, not deregulation.

"Europe is asking how it will pay for its future," Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland CEO, added. 

"The answer cannot be weaker protections for citizens or cuts to development and climate finance while those who have gained most from today's economy continue to accumulate unprecedented wealth and power. Europe should not make the poorest pay. A competitive Europe depends on citizens who trust its institutions. A secure Europe depends on a more stable and more equal world."

"The real question facing Europe is not whether it can afford to uphold its values. It is whether it can afford not to. If Europe asks ordinary citizens and the world's poorest communities to shoulder the cost of its ambitions while leaving concentrations of wealth and power untouched, it will undermine both public trust and its own long-term security."

"Ireland's Presidency is a chance to demonstrate that Europe's founding values remain its greatest strategic advantage. Living those values, even when there is a real or perceived short-term cost, is what will make Europe more trusted by its citizens, more credible in the world and ultimately more secure."

Oxfam is calling on Ireland's Presidency to champion a European approach that:

• Ensures those with the greatest ability to contribute pay their fair share, including through progressive new EU own resources linked to a European wealth tax on extreme wealth concentration and mechanisms to close loopholes for wealthy individuals via the Tax Omnibus;
• Resists attempts to weaken digital rights, AI safeguards and corporate accountability under the banner of "simplification" or deregulation;
• Defends an ambitious development and humanitarian budget focused strictly on poverty reduction and needs-based aid, while safeguarding spending commitments for human development and Least Developed Countries; and
• Promotes a digital economy that serves citizens and democracy rather than concentrating wealth, information and power in the hands of a few global platforms. 

ENDS