ETUC resolution on a 3-year Taxation Action Plan (2025–2027)

ETUC resolution on a 3-year Taxation Action Plan (2025–2027)

Adopted at the Extraordinary Executive Committee meeting of 18 June 2025

Reclaiming Tax Policy for Social Justice, Solidarity, and Investment

Tax evasion, fraud and avoidance, and the erosion of international cooperation in tax matters are driving inequality, undermining social cohesion, and weakening the funding of public services. Progress on EU-level tax reform continues to be blocked by unanimity rules and conflicting national interests. The current European political climate—marked by rising nationalism and fiscal retrenchment—threatens tax fairness. The 2024–2029 EU mandate will be decisive in reorienting tax policy toward solidarity, public investment, and a just transition.

The ETUC considers tax justice a core pillar of a strong and ambitious European social model. The green transition, quality job creation, and strong public services require fair, progressive and effective taxation systems. Workers, on whose shoulders lies the highest tax burden, demand greater corporate tax transparency and stronger action against tax dodging and tax havens, within and outside the EU.

The labour share of income has been constantly declining in advanced economies, while companies’ profits, unproductive revenues and wealth transmission’s sources have been on the rise, also thanks to a lighter taxation compared to labour. Productivity gains have not been matched by a proportionate surge in wages. It is time to advocate for higher wages and for a true progressive tax system that can redistribute income in a fair and efficient fashion, while also establishing a legal framework that defines excess profits and taxes them accordingly during economic downturns to finance social spending. 

This resolution stems from a theory of change process, developed with affiliates through workshops with TUSLOs in Milan and Marseille in 2024. These sessions involved power mapping and strategic planning and produced a clear agenda for union action over the next three years.

Strategic Agenda for 2025–2027

A. Policy Priorities

• Adoption of the Business in Europe Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT), with an effective minimum corporate tax rate of 25%.

• Proposal for an EU directive on wealth taxation.

• Advocate, in the framework of ETUC’s work on public procurement to ensure that the revision of the Directives promotes collective bargaining and quality jobs, also to exclude companies engaged in tax abuse from access to public procurement contracts, as well as from any form of State aid or public subsidies.

These are the key shared objectives. ETUC affiliates are expected to prioritize one or more depending on their national contexts, internal priorities, and available resources.

B. Strategic Approach

To navigate both the unanimity requirement in the Council and the need for European coordination, a joint strategy will be implemented through close cooperation between the ETUC Secretariat and affiliates. Activities will be coordinated timely and strategically.

• A Tax Justice Working Group will be established. It will define campaign priorities, training needs liaising with ETUI, coordinate implementation, and report back to the ETUC Economic Committee and Executive Committee. A call for interest will be issued for its composition.

• Coordination will be strengthened through a European Tax Justice Platform, bringing together national trade unions and civil society allies for strategy, intelligence sharing, and joint action.

• The overarching goal is to increase trade union visibility and leadership in the tax justice debate, currently dominated by business interests and, to a lesser extent, CSOs. Unions must claim space in the public narrative through targeted advocacy and strategic campaigning.

The strategic approach should include both macroeconomic and company-level dimensions, in which front-line union work is carried out. Corporate tax avoidance not only reduces public revenues for services and social spending, but also allows wealth created by workers to flow into tax havens. This undermines workers' bargaining power, limiting wage growth and weakening the virtuous cycle of fair taxation, strong public services, and better working conditions.

C. Key Actions

• Build capacity among union leaders and activists in communication and advocacy for tax justice.

• Organize an annual Trade Unions for Tax Justice Week of Action, aligned with the European Semester and fiscal milestones.

• Host annual tax justice events during each EU Presidency, in collaboration with national affiliates.

• Conduct targeted investigations into companies benefiting from EU contracts while engaging in tax abuse.

• Publish a Trade Union Manifesto on Tax Justice, committing the ETUC and affiliates to a sustained campaign.

• Actively push for an EU directive on wealth taxation.

D. Progress Indicators

• Majority support in the European Parliament and EU institutions for tax justice proposals by the end of 2027.

• Active campaign participation by affiliates from at least 10 Member States each year.

• Increased visibility of trade union voices in media and policy forums advocating fair taxation.

The ETUC and its affiliates fully commit to this campaign - to reclaim tax policy as a tool for fairness, solidarity, and sustainability, and to build a future that works for all workers.