Martin Kenney told the Mail on Sunday newspaper in the UK that public registers are an affront to the right to privacy and also rarely have the intended effect of increasing effective enforcement.
The crimes linked to the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly insidious. The EU is preparing to battle this fraud and corruption by setting up a new European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
It is unjust and wrong-headed for the EU to blame small Caribbean Islands for its own tax mess.
A response to Transparency International and Laure Brillaud’s criticism of Martin Kenney’s recent EU Observer piece about the flaws in public UBO registers.
Campaigners ask for justifiable intrusions into private data, believing it will frustrate crooks, money-launderers and terrorists. It won’t – because criminals tell lies, says Martin Kenney.
The UK may see itself as one of the self-appointed global anti-corruption, anti-money laundering aficionados, but to many, especially its own Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, it is nothing more than the playground bully and a champion of hypocrisy.
The EU’s blacklisting threat against smaller countries or territories for not adhering to its unclear standards in the area of tax avoidance is undemocratic and brutal.
