Crises, corruption and the fiscal and tax consequences for the European citizen - Sociotax2023

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES - Department of Sociology
26 Jun 2023 to 30 Jun 2023
Lesvos

The last decades have been characterized by successive crises on the European continent (financial, immigration, health, energy, etc.). The challenges of each crisis create turbulence at all levels of relations between European states. In addition, they affect the way the European Institutions operate and evolve, while the cuts to deal with the lack of liquidity due to the crises have as their final recipient a European citizen, who, in the effort of the states and the EU to ensure liquidity, cuts public spending . Corruption and high levels of tax evasion in the EU make the role of the Institutions in crisis management even more difficult, while social welfare suffers due to the reduction of benefits from the state. At the same time, states in their efforts to secure public revenue and collection resort to strict tax collection and certification practices violating the human rights of taxpayer citizens with several cases of tax audits having been won in the European Court of Human Rights recognizing the violation of the right to property and access to a fair trial, among the most common cases of human rights violations in the event of a tax audit within the EU.

This particular Summer School combines European Economic Governance with the Social State. More specifically, it will focus on the mechanisms by which the European Economic Governance works, analyzing the roles, rules, procedures and mechanisms from the establishment of the EU to its current evolution but from the point of view of defending its economic interests with respect of the human rights of the European citizen.

The legal and institutional dimensions of the evolution of the EU, the way in which the member states operate inside and outside the EU in times of crisis, the establishment and operation of the Economic and Monetary Union from the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty to its current evolution, emphasizing the differences in the policies developed by the individual member states belonging to the Eurozone, at the level of fiscal and fiscal policy making.

Special mention will be given to the structure of the EU's economic governance system with an example of how the Eurozone countries have dealt with the recent economic crisis while special emphasis will be given to the fiscal and fiscal response to the health crisis at EU level. In order to understand the wide range of European Economic Governance at EU level will use data from the Eurobarometer, the European Statistical Authority, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, Transparency International on the rule of law, democratic institutions, social rights, as well as from cases heard at the European Court of Human Rights in relation to tax audit, fraud, tax evasion as well as irregularities in public procurement.