Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned

• 2 hours ago

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Apple has been told it will not have to pay Ireland €13bn (£11.6bn) in back taxes after winning an appeal at the European Union's second highest court. 

It overturns a 2016 ruling which found the tech giant had been given illegal tax breaks by Dublin. 

The EU's General Court said it had annulled that decision because there was not enough evidence to show Apple broke EU competition rules.

It is a blow for the European Commission, which brought the case. 

However, it has 14 days to appeal against the decision at the EU's supreme court, the European Court of Justice. 

What has the reaction been?

"This case was not about how much tax we pay, but where we are required to pay it," Apple said in a statement. "We're proud to be the largest taxpayer in the world, as we know the important role tax payments play in society."

The Irish government - which had also appealed against the ruling - said it had "always been clear" Apple received no special treatment. 

"The correct amount of Irish tax was charged... in line with normal Irish taxation rules."

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who brought the case, said she would "study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps". 

Dutch MEP Paul Tang called the ruling "deeply unfair".

"I suspect that many people in Ireland think... 'Why is there a company that pays 0.05% in taxes?' I pay more taxes than Apple, for that matter. Many people pay more taxes."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionMargrethe Vestager has been trying to crack down on tax avoidance

What was Apple accused of?

The European Commission brought the action after claiming Ireland had allowed Apple to attribute nearly all its EU earnings to an Irish head office that existed only on paper, thereby avoiding paying tax on EU revenues.

The commission said this constituted illegal aid given to Apple by the Irish state.

• Irish EU court appeal on Apple tax ruling

But the Irish government argued that Apple should not have to repay the back taxes, deeming that its loss was worth it to make the country an attractive home for large companies. 

Ireland - which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU - is Apple's base for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In Wednesday's ruling, the Luxembourg-based General Court sided with that position, saying there was not enough evidence to show Apple had received illegal state aid or minimised its tax bill. 

What does this mean for Ireland?

One rather curious feature of this case is that if the ruling had gone the other way, and Ireland had been on the losing side, its "punishment" for breaching EU law would have been to receive a large amount of money: taxes the Commission said were owed by Apple. 

That did not happen, so the ruling - subject to any appeal - means Apple doesn't in law owe the money, so Ireland won't get it. 

In some quarters of Ireland, there will be relief that an agreement that helped encourage Apple to invest has not been overturned after the event. 

But the sentiment is far from universal. A Sinn Féin spokesman called it a bad day for the Irish taxpayer that would draw negative attention to the country's international tax reputation. 

When the left loses it's divisive...the arrogance of the mindset.

Opinion: Duda's reelection in Poland will deepen divisions

China pressured the EU to change a report about their pandemic coverup — and they did

The coverup to the coverup

Photo: Mehmet Emin Menguarslan / Anadolu Agency

 CARLOS GARCIA

A bombshell report from Reuters documented China's successful effort to soften a report from the European Union that would describe their "disinformation campaign" about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Reuters report cited four diplomatic sources and was published on Friday.
The sources said that the European report on the Chinese coverup was set to be released on April 21 when Chinese authorities heard about it and persuaded the E.U. to postpone its release and edit its contents.
Reuters reviewed correspondence from a senior Chinese official warning that "if the report is as described and it is released today it will be very bad for cooperation."
In one example of the changes made, the excised portion of the report clearly blames China for a disinformation campaign:

"China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image. Both overt and covert tactics have been observed."

In the edited version that was published publicly by the E.U., China's role is reduced significantly, with the disinformation campaign being attributed to "state-backed sources from various governments, including Russia and – to a lesser extent – China."

A later note adds the tidbit of "significant evidence of covert Chinese operations on social media."
Many have accused China of covering up their culpability in the spread of the global pandemic, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who said that he believed China seeded cases in other countries in order to maintain their relative global power.

Here's more about China's culpability for the pandemic:

The China- Italy connection explains the high infection rate.

Far From Coronavirus Epicentre, China Puts Another City Under Lockdown 

Coronavirus: Struggling to contain the virus, authorities virtually shut down the eastern city of Wenzhou on Sunday -- some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Wuhan. 

WorldAgence France-PresseUpdated: February 02, 2020 11:08 pm IST

The World of Fashion

April 16, 2018 Issue

The Chinese Workers Who Assemble Designer Bags in Tuscany

Many companies are using inexpensive immigrant labor to manufacture handbags that bear the coveted “Made in Italy” label.

By D. T. Max

 

More globalism gone bust: France declares 'buy French!'

By Monica Showalter

The European Union doesn't look like it's going to make it through this coronavirus crisis. 
Italians, as noted yesterday, are out burning the EU flag and calling for an EU "Italexit," in the wake of Europe's failure to help them in their coronavirus distress.
Now France, up until now the noisiest advocate for all the European Union stands for, is moving in that same direction. And they aren't in the kind of trouble Italy is. 
According to Legal Insurrection:

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called on his countrymen to buy domestic products as the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak cripples the European single market. Describing his approach as “economic patriotism,” he urged French supermarkets to ‘stock French products.’
The call didn’t go unheard. Following the minister’s remarks on Tuesday, the trade body representing French supermarkets vowed to stock up shelves exclusively with fruits and vegetables produced within France once the foreign products run out, the newspaper Les Echosreported.
The French move comes at a time when the 27 member European Union single market faces a massive supply chain crisis in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Many of the EU member states have set up border controls to restrict the export of food and essential medical supplies to neighboring countries.

It's a big deal, because since when has any Europe Union stalwart ever uttered the word 'patriotism' without yelling 'Hitler' somewhere in the backwash? Hasn't patriotism, in EU eyes, been solely the purview of wild eyed racists and right wing zealots, not to be allowed in polite company? That makes France's move actually pretty hypocritical, as Legal Insurrection notes:

French President Emmanuel Macron has been among the sharpest critics ‘America First’ policy followed by U.S. President Donald Trump. “By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values,” Macron declared when the U.S. president joined him at the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of First World War in November 2018.

The European Union is all about supposedly casting aside selfish interests in the name of global collective goods and forgetting all about where one came from. So now Trump was right all along?
Maybe nations really do act in their national interest, instead of globalism's after all.
France, as it happens, is in a pretty good position to move toward self-sufficiency as the agricultural big boy of the European Union:

France is the first agricultural power in the European Union. With an agricultural production of 61 billion euros in 2009, it produces 19% of European agricultural goods and has the largest agricultural area.

Since it can, it does. But for EU nations that aren't France, this won't go down well. Now that France is pulling up the drawbridge, the rest the European states are likely do the same, bringing on the distant rattle of dominos falling for the EU. 
Nations that aren't as self-sufficient as France are going to step up efforts to get that way. And after that happens, they're all going to be asking what their European Union membership is good for.

The EU was always an argument about money over patriotism, not all that different from China's argument that its communist party delivers prosperity so pay no attention to those Mao posters and that socialist absence of freedom.
Europe for sure has said that economics, not patriotism, is what matters. Europe's money, to take one example, has weird generic images of vaguely European-looking monuments instead of very specific landmarks. That was intentional, a bid to persuade Europe's denizens that 'place' no longer matters in the replacement state of Europe. The EU says this:

On the front of both series of euro banknotes, windows and doorways are shown. They symbolise the European spirit of openness and cooperation. The bridges on the back symbolise communication between the people of Europe and between Europe and the rest of the world.
Like the first series, the new Europa series banknotes show architectural styles from various periods in Europe's history, but do not show any actual existing monuments or bridges. 

Which sounds wretched in light of this French appeal to authentic patriotism now. 
Up until now, the only 'patriotism' the EU stands for loyalty to globalism and the blue 12-star flag, whose 12 stars, again, don't stand for anything. 
The coronavirus era not only shows that socialism and globalism don't mix, it also shows that promising prosperity in place of nation and freedom only works so long as there's actual prosperity. Once there isn't, the whole thing falls apart, and nations retreat to being nations.
France's decision may be existentially right for it, just as Trump's is or America, but it isn't conducive toward making anyone else want to stay in the European Union. If France does this and leaves others high and dry, they in the end will be left asking what they need the European Union for.
Good question. 

Germany's Heiko Maas calls for EU to enforce Libya arms embargo at Munich Security Conference...no names?

Germany's Heiko Maas calls for EU to enforce Libya arms embargo at Munich Security Conference

The UN's deputy Libya envoy said the Libyan embargo has "become a joke." The German foreign minister has called for an EU mission to enforce the failing weapons ban.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Sunday called for a European Union mission to enforce the Libyan arms embargo during a talk on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

He said he would present his proposal at a meeting on Monday between EU foreign ministers. 

"We still need to talk about who contributes what, but there is an EU satellite that is already there," he said. "In addition, we have not succeeded in deciding, due to differing opinions, whether ships could also be deployed."

He added that there must be greater surveillance of weapon shipment routes to the country, to monitor violations of the arms embargo.

"A resolution will be found that contains an EU contribution to the enforcement of the weapons embargo, in a way that is acceptable for all EU member states," Maas said. 

"The African Union should deliver its own contribution to the solution in the coming weeks," he added.

'Hanging by a thread'

Libya's deputy envoy, Stephanie Williams, said the truce in Libya is only hanging by a thread, and that the economic situation is deteriorating. "The arms embargo has become a joke," she said. "It's complicated because there are violations by land, sea and air, but it needs to be monitored and there needs to be accountability."

Williams also announced that an "inclusive Libyan political forum" will be held during the last week of February in Geneva. 

About a dozen foreign ministers and representatives of international organizations gathered to discuss new steps to end the conflict in Libya, following a ceasefire agreement made at a summit in Berlin last month. 

"It is now a matter of implementing step by step what was decided in Berlin," Maas said. On Wednesday, the UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the civil war, and condemned the rise in violence in Libya.

Contentious Berlin summit

At last month's summit, 16 states and organizations agreed to end outside interference in the ongoing civil war. The steps that were supposed to be taken were a ceasefire, compliance with an arms embargo and continuing negotiations between the warring factions.

However, arms deliveries to the North African country have so far continued, a move that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dubbed a "scandal,"at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York earlier this month.

"They committed not to interfere in the Libyan process and they committed not to send weapons or participate in any way in the fighting," he said. "The truth is that the Security Council (arms) embargo remains violated," he said.

Read more:Several countries violated Libya arms embargo since Berlin summit: UN 

About 35 heads of state and government and almost 100 foreign and defense ministers are attending the 56th edition of the conference this weekend.

Energy Paradoxes Put Europe in a Precarious Position

Victor Davis Hanson explains some of Europe's bizarre energy policy:

Despite its cool Green parties and ambitious wind and solar agendas, Europe remains by far the world's largest importer of oil and natural gas.

Oil output in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway is declining, and the European Union is quietly looking for fossil fuel energy anywhere it can find it.

Europe itself is naturally rich in fossil fuels. It likely has more reserves of shale gas than the United States, currently the world's largest producer of both oil and natural gas. Yet in most European countries, horizontal drilling and fracking to extract gas and oil are either illegal or face so many court challenges and popular protests that they are neither culturally nor economically feasible.

The result is that Europe is almost entirely dependent on Russian, Middle Eastern and African sources of energy.

The American-Iranian standoff in the Middle East, coupled with radical drop-offs in Iranian and Venezuelan oil production, has terrified Europe -- and for understandable reasons.

The European Union has almost no ability to guarantee the delivery of critical oil and gas supplies from the Middle East should Iran close the Strait of Hormuz or harass ships in the Persian Gulf.

Europe's only maritime security is the NATO fleet -- a synonym for the U.S. Navy.

More.

Germany and Russia acting in their own best interests

Russia can complete Nord Stream 2 pipeline by itself: Kremlin

Russia's energy minister says despite US sanctions, Moscow will proceed to finish the Baltic Sea pipeline. Germany is dependent on imports for 92% of its gas needs; Washington wants a slice of the lucrative supply trade.

    

Russia will likely complete the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline by itself after Swiss contractor Allseas pulled out of the project citing US sanctions.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that the work could be completed by Nord Stream 2 AG, the Swiss-based subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom that is responsible for planning and operating the pipeline.

"We have an opportunity to complete the work with our own funds," Novak was cited by Russia's TASS news agency as saying. "This will require some additional organizational work, and I think it will be done within a few months."

Read more: German think tank calls for 'climate tariffs' in response to US sanctions on Nord Stream 2

Watch video01:12

US Congress imposes sanctions on Nord Stream 2 

The Russian minister added he was certain Nord Stream 2 would be completed and operational in 2020, despite sanctions imposed last week by the Trump administration.

Swiss-Dutch company Allseas, which was laying the pipeline using two vessels — Pioneering Spirit and Solitaire — suspended work to avoid potential US penalties.

In earlier comments, Novak did not rule out that Allseas could return to work on the gas pipeline in the future.

Moscow 'has a pipe-laying ship'

Meanwhile, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Thursday that Moscow has a "pipe-laying vessel" to finish the project.

President Vladimir Putin told a gathering of top Russian businessmen about the vessel late on Wednesday, the paper said, citing some sources who attended the event.

Putin said the completion of the project would be "stretched" by several months due to the sanctions, Kommersant added.

Gazprom bought a special pipe-laying vessel called Academic Cherskiy in 2016 to be used as a last resort if European companies stopped working on Nord Stream 2.

According to Refinitiv Eikon data, Cherskiy is currently based in the Russian Pacific port of Nakhodka.

Europe 'too dependent' on Russia

US President Donald Trump signed off on sanctions last week on Nord Stream 2, warning that the project would make the EU too dependent on Russian gas.

The pipeline is designed to bypass Ukraine and increase gas supplies via the Baltic Sea to Germany, Russia's biggest energy customer.

Watch video02:04

Trump sanctions halt Russia-Germany pipeline work

Trump has warned that Berlin could become a "hostage of Russia," if Moscow ever threatened to cut off the gas supply, as has happened during price spats with Ukraine over the past decade.

Germany is dependent on imports for 98% of its oil and 92% of its gas supply.

The twin pipes covering a distance of 1,225 kilometers (760 miles), with a combined length of 2,460 km, were due to cost $11 billion to complete, although Germany has warned that extra funds will now be needed. Reports suggest 94% of the pipelines have already been laid, with just 160 kilometers of the construction left.

mm/msh (Reuters, dpa)