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Can new EU corporate tax rules make big business pay its fair share?
A landmark global deal setting a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% on multinational companies came into force in the European Union on 1 January.
The EU has for years tried to flex its muscles on corporate tax evasion by introducing a raft of new laws and lodging high-profile court cases against multinationals.
But some of its own member states – such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus – have continued to allow high-profit companies to dodge both taxes and scrutiny. Profit shifting worldwide has also remained high, causing losses worth billions of euros for the continent while economic inequality deepens.
Now, companies with revenues of at least €750 million active in any of the 27 EU states will face a minimum corporate tax rate of 15%. The bloc’s economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni described the new year rules as “a new dawn for the taxation of large multinationals”.
The move is part of a sweeping overhaul of the global tax system agreed by some 140 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2021 after a decade of negotiations, and aims to crack down on governments that slash their corporate tax bills to attract investment.
Other countries such as the UK, Norway, Australia, Japan and Canada are also implementing the measures.
While the new interlocking rules have been hailed as groundbreaking, experts told Euronews there is a need to close crucial loopholes to ensure big business is held accountable.
A ‘revolution’ in tax justice
The OECD deal consists of two pillars, the first of which aims to ensure companies pay tax where they do business. The second pillar sets the global minimum tax rate of 15%.
In an interlocking system hailed revolutionary, if one country fails to tax a multinational at this rate, other countries can charge a so-called “top-up tax”.
This does not mean EU countries will necessarily adjust their corporate tax rate to the 15% baseline, since other countries will be able to step in to collect the taxes due from multinationals that pay their levies in low-tax jurisdictions.
This means that in a hypothetical scenario, a French multinational operating in Senegal and shifting its profits to Ireland could see either France or even Senegal charge a top-up tax if it doesn’t pay the minimum rate of 15% in Ireland.
“The concept is revolutionary,” according to Quentin Parrinello, a senior policy adviser at the EU Tax Observatory.
“It’s the first time we have more than 140 countries, including all major economic actors, agree that multinational companies should pay a minimum amount of tax on the profits it reports.”
“There is, in theory, no incentive for a country not to apply the minimum tax because if they don’t, another country will get the tax revenues,” Parrinello added.
Most EU countries have already transposed the EU Directive – that makes the new rules a reality – into law. Five countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia – have informed the European Commission that they will delay implementation as they have fewer than twelve affected multinationals operating within their borders.
Too many loopholes
But despite its promise, experts fear the reform alone cannot stamp out tax havens or prevent a so-called ‘race to the bottom’ of harmful tax competition between governments.
States can still abide by the new minimum rate whilst offering generous tax credits and other deductions that effectively reduce the tax rate below 15%. Many states are already introducing attractive transferable credits, grants and subsidies to compete for investment.
“We already see this, for example with the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) in the US. We also have countries such as Ireland, Switzerland, and the Caymans already thinking of their own systems,” Parrinello explained.
Another loophole in the deal allows firms to exclude certain amounts of profits – equal to 8% of the value of tangible assets and 10% of payroll in the first year – from the tax base.
ADVERTISEMENTThe EU Tax Observatory estimates that this loophole could cost the EU some €26 billion in its first year of implementation. A loophole-free 15% minimum tax could have raised around $95 billion (€87 billion) in the bloc in 2023, the watchdog says, dropping to just $67 billion (€61 billion) with the current design.
“There will not be an end to harmful tax competition and the race to the bottom on taxation,” Chiara Putaturo, Inequality and Tax Policy Advisor at Oxfam’s EU office, said.
“We are seeing a lot of countries like Ireland, Switzerland and also Bermuda changing some of the tax systems they had before to introduce generous refundable tax credit so that they will still be able to have a lower and lower tax rate,” she added.
“The minimum tax is a floor,” Parinello said. “It’s much better to have a floor than nothing. But if you drill holes in the floor, you weaken the overall structure.”
World should move in lockstep
The OECD-designed system is unique in the way it incentivises all world nations to move in lockstep. Countries infamous for attracting giant companies with attractive tax incentives – such as Barbados and Panama – are also signatories.
ADVERTISEMENTAn overwhelming majority of Swiss voters (78.5%) also backed the new rules in a consultation last June, putting pressure on their government to swiftly adopt the rules.
The US and China have not yet passed the necessary legislation but are likely to be incentivised to do so to ensure other countries do not top up their own tax collections at their expense.
But Putaturo warned that the 15% rate, which is lower than the global average, lacks ambition.
“The majority of countries, globally, have an effective tax rate which is higher than 15%. So this could even bring some countries to lower their tax rate, in a race to the minimum rather than a race to the bottom,” Putaturo explained.
“The minimum tax also does almost anything in terms of the redistribution of tax revenues. The so-called resident countries, where multinationals are headquartered, will have the right to top up the tax to 15% if the tax haven does not collect the tax due. This is a problem for poorer countries because the resident countries are mainly rich countries,” she added.
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Sombr was mid-performance at the Brit Awards when a random man bumrushed the stage and pushed the singer off the platform, leaving him stunned — only it was all planned, says his rep.
The singer-songwriter, who was nominated for international artist and international song, was at the end of his smash single “Undressed” when a man joined him on the podium and shoved him hard. Security guards aggressively removed the man from the stage, and Sombr returned to the microphone to segue into his next song.
Shortly after the performance came to a close, Sombr’s rep confirmed to Variety that the whole thing was part of the act. Fans were already split online over whether the incident was staged or real. Naysayers noticed that the offender was wearing a shirt that read “Sombr is a homewrecker” — a nod to his latest single “Homewrecker,” which some claimed was a dead giveaway. But others weren’t necessarily convinced it was a stunt, considering how hard he was pushed and how additional security guards came to his rescue.
Brits host Jack Whitehall remarked on the incident after Sombr’s performance concluded. “Such a shame we didn’t have the security ready,” he said.
The incident took place just days after Britain’s BAFTA Awards last Sunday, when John Davidson, the Scottish Tourette’s syndrome activist and real-life inspiration for the film “I Swear,” disrupted that ceremony with an outburst of racial slurs that occurred as “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage. “I can’t begin to explain how upset and distraught I have been as the impact from Sunday sinks in,” Davidson told Variety earlier this week.
Whitehall made a joking reference to that incident — which was not bleeped from the initial BAFTA broadcast and was audible to viewers — at the top of the Brits, saying “We’ve got the best in the business on the bleep button.”
Sombr is coming off a red-hot year that saw his various singles “Undressed,” “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” impact the charts. He recently performed at the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for best new artist alongside Addison Rae, Alex Warren, the Marías, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Katseye and Olivia Dean, who ended up taking home the award.
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Iran was plunged into an internet blackout Saturday after Israel and the U.S. launched military strikes around the country, according to a global internet monitor.
Within hours of the strikes — which officials said targeted infrastructure and killed dozens of senior regime figures at a compound in Tehran— NetBlocks CEO Alp Toker confirmed connectivity started “flatlining.”
“We’re tracking the ongoing blackout, but our assessment is that this is straight out of Iran’s wartime playbook and consistent both technically and strategically with what we saw during the 2025 Twelve-Day War with Israel,” Toker told Fox News Digital.
“Iran’s internet connectivity is now flatlining around the 1% level, so the original blackout the regime imposed during the morning has been consolidated,” he confirmed.
“The blackout was imposed just after 7:00 UTC, not long after the attack on the Iranian regime compound,” Toker clarified, adding that Iran had been largely offline for approximately 12 hours following the attack.
“At 06:10 UTC, there is the main compound strike; at 07:10 UTC, telecoms disruption starts; at 08:00 UTC, the blackout is largely in effect; and by 08:30 UTC, connectivity flatlines.”
“Wartime national blackouts are exceedingly rare around the world, and it’s something we’ve only really seen at this scale in Iran,” he said.
President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Iran following an Israeli strike in Tehran on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (@WhiteHouse/X)
In the wake of the attack, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the “heavy and pinpoint” bombing in Iran “will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
He claimed Iranian security forces and members of the regime’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were already seeking immunity. He urged them to “peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.”
“We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces no longer want to fight and are looking for Immunity from us,” Trump said in the post. “As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity; later they only get Death!’”
Toker argued the timing of the blackout suggested it was imposed deliberately as the regime sought to secure communications amid fears of further targeting.
TRUMP TELLS IRANIANS THE ‘HOUR OF YOUR FREEDOM IS AT HAND’ AS US-ISRAEL LAUNCH STRIKES AGAINST IRAN
TEHRAN, IRAN – FEBRUARY 28: Smoke rises over the city center after an Israeli army launches 2nd wave of airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Iranian regime will have deployed this new blackout to counter potential cyberattacks during their own military operation, but also to avoid leaking the locations of senior regime figures through metadata and user-generated content,” he said.
“Communications would have been limited, and Iran’s leadership would have proceeded with the assumption that all communications, including satellite or whitelisted networks, carry risks,” he said before claiming that “paranoia would be well grounded at this point, with the blackout a belated but direct response to that.”
“Those participating directly would already know to avoid technology that could betray their whereabouts,” Toker said.
“However, the metadata may well have played a part in determining that the meeting of regime leaders was being held at the Tehran compound, who was in attendance, and at what time.”
DID THEY GET HIM? KHAMENEI’S FATE REMAINS UNKNOWN AFTER ISRAEL-US STRIKE LEVELS HIS COMPOUND
In this handout image provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation in a state television broadcast on June 18, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)
Toker revealed that the broader network around the regime leaders and around the compound wouldn’t have had the same strict restrictions.
“This kind of adjacent ‘background noise’ can be correlated against other intelligence sources to build an understanding of activity on the ground,” he added.
“Smartphones are a readily available, almost ‘free’ source of intelligence, and even when locked down, they eventually connect to international online services and generate insights that can be used to pinpoint regime figures,” Toker said.
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“In the aftermath of Saturday’s strike, this concern will have been high on the remaining Iranian leadership’s minds, especially if they didn’t have a clear and specific understanding of how the meeting was compromised.”
Iran has previously imposed sweeping internet shutdowns during periods of domestic unrest, including nationwide protests in January, which saw thousands killed, often seeking to curb the spread of information and restrict coordination.
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Women’s rights groups and activists hailed the European Commission’s decision on accessible abortion across Europe, calling it a “historic” move for women’s rights and European democracy.
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The move marks an unusual step taken by the European Union, as healthcare policy is typically determined at a national level.
On Thursday, the European Commission confirmed member states can use an EU social fund to provide access to safe and legal abortion for women who are barred from doing so in their home country.
Member states can make use of the bloc’s existing European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), which contributes to social, education, employment and healthcare policies, voluntarily and in accordance with their domestic laws to provide such support.
“We were very aware of the competence that the European Union has in this area, which is restricted,” Europe’s Associate Director for the Center for Reproductive Rights Katrine Thomasen told Euronews, pointing to the fact that the bloc can support, coordinate or supplement the actions of members states, but cannot impede on national laws, such as healthcare policies.
The Commission stopped short of creating a new funding mechanism, which was requested by the European Parliament in a non-binding resolution adopted in December.
Critics argued that by declining to establish a dedicated fund and instead referring to an existing one, the EU was effectively failing to act and rejecting the proposal.
However, women’s rights organisations say the decision affirms that the EU has the competence to act on sexual and reproductive heath and creates a pathway towards accessible abortion.
“It was previously not clear that member states could use EU funding to provide abortion care to women facing barriers,” Thomasen said, “the Commission’s decision is really the first time that it is affirming and deciding that EU funds can be used in this way”.
Member states that wish to benefit from the ESF+ to offer accessible abortion services will now need to establish programmes and define how patients can benefit from it.
‘My Voice, My Choice’
The Commission’s decision came in response to a call made by the citizens’ initiative “My Voice, My Choice” for the creation of an EU solidarity mechanism to guarantee safe and affordable access to abortion for all women.
“My Voice, My Choice” is a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a mechanism that allows citizens to call on the European Commission to propose new legislation.
If an initiative gets the support of at least one million people across at least seven EU countries, it must be discussed by the European Parliament, while the European Commission has a timeframe to either set out legislative measures or provide justification for not doing so.
“My Voice, My Choice” collected 1,124,513 signatures across all 27 countries.
“My Voice, My Choice started on the streets, it started with a group of women who had had enough that women are secondary citizens,” the initiative’s coordinator Nika Kovač told Euronews.
“We decided to take action and we brought something to the table. We brought our own chair to the places where we usually don’t have the chairs,” Kovač added.
The movement gained cross-border momentum, with women’s rights activists mobilising across Europe. With over one million followers on Instagram, “My Voice, My Choice” also built a strong online presence.
Dutch journalist Belle de Jong campaigned for the initiative in Malta, where abortion remains criminalised and heavily restricted. She described the challenges of organising on the ground, noting that many women were reluctant to take to the streets because of stigma and fear of legal consequences.
De Jong told Euronews that the campaign’s success in Malta was largely because it was online, “so people didn’t have to go out into the streets or show their face,” she said, adding that she collected more than 4,000 signatures for Malta, more than double she expected.
“Thanks to My Voice, My Choice, we no longer have an excuse to prosecute women for accessing healthcare, because we’re paying for them to go abroad with this EU mechanism. So it really begs the question: when are we going to decriminalise it? That will be our next fight in Malta,” she added.
The decision sparked a range of reactions from politicians
Several members of the European Parliament have expressed satisfaction after the Commission’s statements.
“For the first time the Commission has confirmed that countries can use EU funds to support access to abortion care. This is a victory for European women”, said Slovenian Socialist MEP Matjaž Nemec, who penned a letter to the Commission ahead of the decision.
Valérie Hayer, President of Renew Europe, said the decision “marked real progress for women’s rights,” underlining that the Commission had never before stated so clearly that EU funding can support access to safe abortion.
Other MEP’s, including Emma Fourreau from the Left group and French MEP Mélissa Camara from the Greens/EFA group considered the move a step forward, but would have liked to see a dedicated budget.
On the other side, far-right Spanish party Vox claimed that the Commission has rejected the “My Voice, My Choice” initiative, as there will be no specific fund to finance abortions abroad. “The Commission is just trying to politically save the initiative by pointing out existing instruments,” a press release from the party states.
The Italian anti-abortion association “Pro Vita & Famiglia” (Pro Life and Family) also considered that the initiative was rejected, while criticising its opening up to the use of ESF+ money to finance reproductive healthcare. “We ask the Italian government not to use this money to promote abortions”, said spokesperson Maria Rachele Ruiu.
Abortion policies across the European Union
Some EU countries have highly restrictive laws on abortion rights. A total ban is in force in Malta, where abortion is not allowed under any circumstances, while in Poland it is permitted only when conception follows sexual violence or when there is a risk to the woman’s health.
In January 2021, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal banned abortions in cases of fetal malformation, which until then had been the most frequent reason for terminating pregnancies in the country.
Several EU countries have taken steps to guarantee the right to safe abortions. France, for instance, made it a constitutional right, while Luxembourg and the Netherlands have removed mandatory waiting periods.
Sweden, France, and the Netherlands rank best in the European Union for abortion rights, according to the European Abortion Policies Atlas 2025. Malta and Poland remain at the bottom of the ranking, along with Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Some countries have more relaxed laws, but they lack legal protections that fully decriminalise abortion, wide service availability, national health coverage, or government-led information on the matter.
Other member states have recorded new restrictions, increased harassment of abortion providers, and the spread of disinformation on the topic.
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