Global Citizen Forum launch: Call for tax on European Union resident and citizenship
investor applications to provide funds to tackle European refugee crisis.
investor applications to provide funds to tackle European refugee crisis.
Dubai, 8 July 2015: Arton Capital, the industry-leading global financial advisory firm, specializing in investor programs for residence and citizenship around the world, has called on European Union governments to institute a levy on foreign investors as part of their residence and citizenship programs and use the proceeds to support intra-government efforts to tackle Europe’s refugee problem.
Speaking in London at the IBC Citizenship by Investment and International Residence Summit, Armand Arton, Chief Executive Officer of Arton Capital, spoke of the need to find new ways to tackle the refugee flows into Europe and urged governments to consider the implementation of a levy on their citizenship through investment programs as a potentially significant way to fund responses to the issue.
“At the core of the global residence and citizenship industry are high net-worth individuals who choose to contribute to a third country’s economy in exchange for a better future for themselves and their families. They benefit socially and economically and so do the countries that welcome them as citizens,” said Arton. “Our clients consistently tell us that they wish to create social and economic advantages for all who share the same dream of a better life and would be willing to pay such a levy to deliver humanitarian assistance, stability and fund development projects to support refugees.”
Latest figures from UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, reveal that the number of refugees and internally displaced persons assisted by UNHCR in 2014 rose by 25% to 46.7 million persons. In 2014, almost 220,000 people crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Africa – with 6,570 people dying in the process since 2011. With UN budgets allocated for refugee operations in Europe just US$64 million in 2015, a significant funding deficit exists, with the burden of response placed on individual countries.
“This is a broad issue that affects the whole of Europe, but one that has its roots in the home countries of these displaced people. Both the cause and effect require a collective response,” says Armand Arton. “A simple, levy on a sliding scale between 1% and 5% at the time of an investor application for residence or citizenship in EU countries could raise in excess EUR 250 million over an 18-month period. With the number of applications growing year-on-year, and the increase number of countries who wish to attract global citizens, the initiative would be sustainable in long-term and can fund over a billion euros in the next five years. Our collective efforts could be hugely significant and helpful to agencies that are working with the multitude of displaced.”
The issue of a levy on residence and citizenship by investment applications as a response to tackling refugee problem is just one of the central themes on the agenda at the Global Citizen Forum, curated by Arton Capital and hosted this October in Monaco October 8th and 9th 2015.
Speakers at this year’s event include global citizens and visionaries, including Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Jose Manuel Barroso, former President of the European Commission and Prime Minister of Portugal and a number of other public figures with strong links to global citizenship. They will be joined by representatives from governments from the European Union, Africa and the Americas as well as the United Nations to discuss the implications of mass migration and Europe’s pivotal role in the global migration stream as well as considering other areas of global citizenship, international mobility, and the opportunities it presents for individuals and governments.
For more information visit www.globalcitizenforum.org.