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Europe is facing unacceptable levels of poverty and inequality. Instead of putting people first, policy decision making is increasingly influenced by wealthy elites who bend the rules to their advantage, worsening poverty and economic inequality, while steadily and significantly eroding democratic institutions. Austerity measures and unfair tax systems across Europe are skewed in favour of powerful vested interests. It is time to reverse the course of poverty and inequality in Europe, putting people first., This briefing paper reviews the current situation and presents recommendations to help put an end to poverty and extreme inequality in Europe. It draws on data from Oxfam's research paper Background Data for Oxfam Briefing ‘A Europe For the Many, Not the Few’ for which the raw data can be viewed via our online data tool.

New estimates show that just eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. As growth benefits the richest, the rest of society - especially the poorest - suffers. The very design of our economies and the principles of our economics have taken us to this extreme, unsustainable and unjust point. Our economy must stop excessively rewarding those at the top and start working for all people. Accountable and visionary governments Businesses that work in the interests of workers and producers A valued environment Women's rights A strong system of fair taxation, Are central to this more human economy., The sources and methodology behind the headline facts in this paper are explained in the separate methodology note.

Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top., The number of billionaires has doubled since the financial crisis and their fortunes grow by $2.5bn a day, yet the super-rich and corporations are paying lower rates of tax than they have in decades. The human costs – children without teachers, clinics without medicines – are huge. Piecemeal private services punish poor people and privilege elites. Women suffer the most, and are left to fill the gaps in public services with many hours of unpaid care., We need to transform our economies to deliver universal health, education and other public services. To make this possible, the richest people and corporations should pay their fair share of tax. This will drive a dramatic reduction in the gap between rich and poor and between women and men., Check out the interactive online version of the report., Notre économie est défaillante : des centaines de millions de personnes vivent dans l’extrême pauvreté alors que d’immenses richesses sont concentrées dans les mains d’une minorité., Le nombre de milliardaires a doublé depuis la crise financière et leur fortune augmente chaque jour de 2,5 milliards de dollars. Or, les élites fortunées et les grandes entreprises bénéficient des taux d’imposition les plus bas de ces dernières décennies. Les coûts humains (des enfants sans enseignant-e-s, des cliniques sans médicaments) sont considérables et ce sont les plus pauvres qui en payent le prix. Les femmes en souffrent particulièrement, contraintes de combler des services publics insuffisants par de nombreuses heures de travail de soin non rémunéré., Nous devons transformer nos économies pour garantir l’universalité de l’accès à la santé, à l’éducation et à d’autres services publics. Pour cela, les entreprises et les plus riches doivent payer leur juste part d'impôts. Cela permettra de réduire considérablement l’écart entre les riches et les pauvres et entre les femmes et les hommes.

Last year saw the biggest increase in billionaires in history, one more every two days. This huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over. 82% of all wealth created in the last year went to the top 1%, and nothing went to the bottom 50%., Dangerous, poorly paid work for the many is supporting extreme wealth for the few. Women are in the worst work, and almost all the super-rich are men. Governments must create a more equal society by prioritizing ordinary workers and small-scale food producers instead of the rich and powerful.

The world of tax havens is a murky place. In Europe, only one sector is required to publicly report its profits and tax on a country-by-country basis – the banking sector, as a result of regulation following the financial crisis. Since 2015 all banks based in the European Union have been obliged to report on their operations in this way. This report showcases research by Oxfam that uses this new transparency data in depth for the first time to illustrate the extent to which the top 20 EU banks are using tax havens, and in which ways., The urgent need now is to extend public country-by-country reporting to all sectors of the economy. If tax transparency is extended to all sectors, it will be easier for governments to clamp down on tax dodging and to repatriate lost tax revenues that could be used to fight inequality through investment in healthcare, education, social protection and job creation.

Collecting tax is one of the key means by which governments are able to address poverty and inequality. But big business is dodging tax on an industrial scale, depriving governments across the globe of the money they need to address poverty and invest in healthcare, education and jobs. This report exposes the world’s worst corporate tax havens – extreme examples of a destructive race to the bottom on corporate tax which has seen governments across the globe slash corporate tax bills in an attempt to attract business. It calls on governments to work together to put a stop to this before it is too late.

Free public services, such as health and education, are one of the strongest weapons in the fight against inequality. They benefit everyone in society, but the poorest most of all. They mitigate the impact of skewed income distribution, and redistribute revenue by putting ‘virtual income’ into the pockets of the poorest women and men., Across OECD countries public services already provide the poorest people with the equivalent of 76% of their post-tax income., Oxfam is calling on governments to urgently reform tax systems and increase public spending on free public services, such as health and education, to tackle inequality and prevent us being tipped irrevocably into a world that works for the few and not the many., Key recommendations: Prioritize increased public spending on and delivery of health and education services, to fight poverty and inequality at a national level. Prioritize policies and practices that increase financing for free public health and education. Finance health and education from general progressive taxation, rather than through private and optional insurance schemes, user fees and out-of-pocket payments. Refrain from implementing unproven and unworkable market reforms to public health and education systems, and expand public sector rather than private sector delivery of essential services.

European austerity programmes have dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality and enable equitable growth. With inequality and poverty on the rise, Europe is facing a lost decade. An additional 15 to 25 million people across Europe could face the prospect of living in poverty by 2025 if austerity measures continue. Oxfam knows this because it has seen it before. The austerity programmes bear a striking resemblance to the ruinous structural adjustment policies imposed on Latin America, South-East Asia, and sub-Sahara Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. These policies were a failure: a medicine that sought to cure the disease by killing the patient. They cannot be allowed to happen again. In A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe Oxfam calls on the governments of Europe to turn away from austerity measures and instead choose a path of inclusive growth that delivers better outcomes for people, communities, and the environment., Oxfam has also produced a series of country case studies on the damaging effects of austerity. These cover France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK, and are available to download below., "Oxfam's report, A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe, makes an important contribution to assessing the high and long-lasting costs of these ill-conceived policies.", Professor Joseph Stiglitz