EU capitals have agreed a fresh sanctions package against Russia, as Brussels vows to step up pressure on Moscow and support for Kyiv despite US-led negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
The bloc’s 16th package of sanctions against Russia since it launched its full-scale war takes aim at the country’s aluminium industry and further tightens restrictions on its oil exports.
The sanctions target 13 more banks, 73 more so-called shadow fleet tankers used by Moscow to export crude oil, and a “phased-in” ban on EU countries buying certain types of Russian aluminium products, according to people briefed on its contents.
The package, which the people said was endorsed by ambassadors from all the EU’s 27 countries on Wednesday morning, also targets more individuals and companies deemed to be helping Russia prosecute its war against Ukraine.
This is a developing story
Indeed. Sanctions do work in the long term, but when an invader is marching into your country right now, you can’t wait for those long term effects, you need capable weapons in sufficient numbers right now in order to stop and beat him back on the spot.
Really, that’s easy. Just tax the rich. They have been leeching off the rest of society for decades, it’s high time they pay up.
I do believe taxing the rich is part of the strategy but it can’t be everything.
Thing is, the rich are the ones most able to move their money around so they pay the least in taxes so I’m not sure Europe, as a whole, will be able to effectively tax them to the correct level in the long term. If the taxes end up ‘too high’ by their standards, these people will just move to the US where they don’t need to help any poors like they should. Rich individuals are also a source of capital to fund start ups which the EU also needs too.
I think it could be more productive to force the rich to put their money into the economy by creating innovative new companies. Companies are harder to move to another country compared to an individual and their family. At the same time, somehow prevent them from dodging the current taxes so they can’t just hide their immense wealth from the state for free
You can prevent the rich from sneaking their money out of the tax man’s reach, if you only want to. Tax investigators are worth their weight in money. Also a lot of the money of those rich people is in companies and property, which is hard to move, and, for a government willing to do so, easy to impound. We don’t need a whole bunch of “innovative” for the sake of “innovation” tech bro brain fart startups, a large part of which will never become profitable, like the US is getting.
Thing is, Europe lags behind in tech on most metrics. We need to foster new companies that can compete in current industries and creat new ones. Without this, tech will continue to be another dimension in which we rely on others to supply us. Of course, some of these start-ups will be shitty cash grabs. But most will be trying to accomplish something real. Europe cannot only rely on once reliable industries for growth (like automotive), it needs to look at the future and jump on it before others do