G20 Meet Euro News
Representatives of the world’s 20 largest economies met in Italy for the G20 meet. A major outcome was their accordance to crackdown on multinationals’ use of tax havens.
This landmark move will stop multinationals shifting profits to tax havens. This agreement will establish a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15 per cent on multinationals with more than $ 890 million in revenue. This approach would shift the ways companies like Amazon and Google are taxed. The taxes these companies pay will go partly to where they sell products and services, rather than just the location of their headquarters.
The G20 countries will have to figure out how to implement the complicated new system, by October, when the G20 meet is planned. If all are on board, the tax system is expected to take effect from 2023.
Emission control: a priority in COP26 climate summit
The floods in western Europe – Germany and parts of Belgium, France and Netherlands – have come right in time close to the COP26, which is a global United Nations summit about climate change. It is scheduled for November at Glasgow. This meet is critical as nations will report on their progress since Paris Agreement, 2015. There are huge expectations that important decisions on cutting carbon emissions will be taken at this meet.
More than 100 developing countries that are severely affected by climate change, have laid out their key negotiating demands.
In the report, the countries stress on, “fair accounting share,” which allocates historical responsibility of emission to the capacity to act. This means US would need to reduce emissions by 195 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. This could result in a 70 per cent cut in domestic emissions plus $ 80 billion a year in support for developing countries.
Aging – a worrying factor of the world’s happiest country
Finland has been consecutively topped as the world’s happiest country; but now it faces an imbalance between its working age population and elderly. In 2017, Finland had 17 per cent of its population over 65 years but today it is second only to Japan: the United Nations has projected that the elderly dependency ratio in Finland will increase to 47.5 per cent by 2030. To make up for this, Finland needs to increase its immigrants’ intake from 20,000 to 30,000 per year.
Finland is known for its quality of life, facilities, and lack of corruption but it has not been able to attract skilled immigrants. Some issues relate to the hostile cold weather and a general anti-immigrant sentiment amongst its population. Another reason is also the difficulty to learn the language.
The football/tennis month
For the past few months, sports fever has raged across Europe. Several sporting events that were cancelled last year due to the pandemic were kick-started this year. The UEFA Euro 2020 football championship saw the Italian captain Giorgio Chiellini lifting the championship trophy, retaining their unbeaten run in 34 matches. A gripping penalty shootout led to their victory against England.
With the French open concluding in June, the Wimbledon followed in the next month. In men’s singles, Novak Djokovic claimed his 20 Grand Slam title defeating Matteo Berrettini in the finals. The woman’s single title was won by Ashleigh Barty who defeated Karolína Plíšková.
Cycling enthusiasts had the Tour de France to hook on. It is a men’s multi stage bicycle race that has 21 stages expanding over 23 days covering around 3500 km. This year, Tadej Pogacar from UAE Team Emirates won the race.
by Jayanthi Raghunathan
