Timo Lappalainen of KEPA, International Development Minister Hautala, Foreign Minister Tuomioja, and Matti Kohonen of the Tax Justice Network. (Photo: Eero Kuosmanen)

Tax evasion by multinational corporations causes difficulties to developing countries. The most common method for companies to avoid taxes is to abuse transfer pricing. Profits are transferred to tax havens or to countries with low tax rates. This issue was analyzed at a seminar in Helsinki organized by the Tax Justice Network, the Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA, focal point of Social Watch) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs organised an international expert seminar in Helsinki.

Nomadic pastoralists in Kenia (Roger Job/Veterinarians Without Borders)

Professor Mirjam Van Reisen, director of Europe External Policy Advisors, insisted on the “urgency of the question of the coherence of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)” that remains unanswered, though the only solution to combine fair development, climate change curbing and biodiversity preservation should take place at the global scale.

European Social Forum in Florence, 2002. (Photo: ESF)

The next edition of the European Social Forum (ESF) will be held in Florence, from November 8-11, ten years after the first one, that convened under the slogan "against war, racism and neo-liberalism" in the same Italian city. In November, this alliance of humanitarian and environmental movements, trade unions, non governmental organizations and other institutions committed with human rights and the world peace will dialogue in a very different situation.

Photo; Navdanya International

More than 100 heads of State and government prepare to approve on Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012). After intensive and protracted informal negotiations, representatives of 191 countries reached an agreement on Tuesday.

Helen Clark. (UN Photo)

A high-level forum at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012) offered this week an opportunity to debate how to measure the social progress of the countries and the whole world without merely depending on economic indicators, and assessing at the same time the damage caused by human activities to the well-being of the future generations.