David Martin's EU Tribune

Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Union (EU) Ombudsman – whose role is to investigate maladministration in EU institutions and agencies – has presented his annual report for 2011 in Brussels. Once again ‘…the lack of transparency’ has come top of the list of complaints from European citizens. Similarly the European Commission maintains its position as the [...]

Remember Equitable Life? When the European Parliament launched an inquiry into the Equitable Life fiasco it found itself without the power to summon the necessary witnesses or documents and the conclusion was that the Parliament lacked the ability to get to the truth. There were also no consequences for people not telling the truth. On [...]

It has been two years since the launch of a global campaign for a Robin Hood Tax during which time the debate has moved on from a radical idea to a realistic proposition considered by the IMF, the European Commission, the G20 and a number of national governments. At the G20 Summit in France last [...]

The European Commission has calculated that European Union (EU) Member States would pay 50 percent less into the general EU budget by 2020 if they agree to implement a financial transactions tax (FTT). By the Commission’s estimate, Germany would pay €10.7 billion less to the EU budget by 2020, Poland €1.8 billion, Italy €6.4 billion [...]

Captain Paul Watson Captain Paul Watson is the world’s most aggressive, most determined, most active and most effective defender of wildlife, is currently being held in prison in Germany pending extradition proceedings to Costa Rica on a trumped up politically motivated charge because he exposed the scale of illegal shark-finning and taking direct action to [...]

The people all over the European Union (EU) are speaking at the ballot boxes – they want an end to austerity and the damage it is doing to jobs and the social fabric of our societies. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been weakened by repeated losses in regional elections. Meanwhile in France, the second [...]

In a recent report Paul Bevan, Secretary General of EUROCITIES, has argued that cities should be the engines of the European economy. He believes that changes to the EU’s regional policy represent an opportunity to ensure that cities contribute fully to the recovery The number one objective for the next long-term European Union budget has [...]

For my first blog today I am repeating Richard Murphy’s Blog, which is so important. Richard is also on Panorama tonight at 8.30 a must watch! German electors rejected austerity this weekend. They were right to join the French and Greeks in doing so. As Jonathan Portes of the National Institute for Economic and Social [...]

Fair Trade goods are now sold in more and more shops throughout Scotland – everything from chocolate to shampoo. Tomorrow is World Fair Trade Day 2012 (12 May 2012). I would like to congratulate the Fair Trade movement on the occasion of World Fair Trade Day which is celebrated around the world this Saturday. It [...]

It appears that the Robin Hood Tax (Financial Transaction Tax) which is designed to take a tiny amount from big financial institutions and gives to the poor of the world is really gaining ground. Alex Salmond is now trying to jump on to the bandwagon and has appeared in Oxfam’s latest newsletter supporting the tax [...]