Roberta Metsola’s Post

This seems to be a rather hopeful perspective, isn't it? But, unfortunately, neglecting Roma is in fact profitable... Capitalism and colonialism go together very well. Necula did calculation how much Romania might owe to Roma for slavery (although, funny enough, he now prefers to count how much EU might profit from Roma). Neglecting Roma is very profitable as Europe does not have to invest and can easily exploit. Just consider Roma informal recycling contribution for decades, with almost completely no cost for the state. Human rights cost money. It is a simple capitalist logic-extract value. Why economically invest in somebody and give them rights if you can already make so much profit from not doing that? And, one can argue, there is no stronger political consensus than the one on anti-Roma racism. Every election reminds us how Europe is united on this topic across borders. The whole European identity can be said to be based on not-being-Roma. I mean, there are Roma working in art, I guess ERIAC people would agree or even swear on it. So, I guess it is interesting to think about which Europe are we talking about here? And to whom is this directed? Roma do know that European societies as a whole have no interest to mobilize in any way to change anything, let alone anything fundamentally in their relations to Roma or other people as systemic racism is the norm. If it was not so profitable, they would stop it long time ago. But, again, it makes you wonder can Roma elites say anything but express hope Europe will one day believe in its narrative and act upon it? Now Roma are to be more invested in the European project than "proper" Europeans. Unfortunately, the European project is from the start colonial, racist, and exploitative, so it all seems rather infelicitous performance wise.

“Fundamental changes in the position of Roma, and others in similar situations, are not only the responsibility of states and political elites; European societies as a whole must mobilize to build a Europe for the 21st century.” This article by our Zeljko Jovanovic in Serbia’s Novi Magazin includes key points from our network’s Roma for Europe 2030 agenda, which makes the case for why Europe needs the Roma and lists actions to be taken for Roma—and all citizens—to live to their full potential. Read the article at the link in the comments. #romaforeurope

🌍 Welcome Home, Moldova! 🇲🇩 Moldova is making historic strides toward EU integration, with President Maia Sandu leading the charge. Sandu’s push for reform and her unwavering commitment to the EU are resonating with Moldovans, and this election could solidify her vision for the country’s future. Michael Gahler, Head of the delegation from the European Parliament declared: “We welcome the results of the referendum. Despite the unprecedented massive, malign and illicit Russian interference, especially through vote buying, hybrid attacks and disinformation, the people of the Republic of Moldova chose a future in the EU. We commend the competent Moldovan authorities for holding a well-managed and efficient election under these extraordinary circumstances. We call on all stakeholders to resist any interference, in order not to allow it to distort the results of the second round of the presidential election and the 2025 parliamentary elections.” The OSCE has emphasized the importance of these elections as a test of Moldova’s democratic progress. The spotlight is on the country as it balances its rich cultural identity with its ambitions for European integration. Moldova’s media plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency and holding leaders accountable, which is why Maison du MédiaLab is committed to supporting independent Moldovan journalists in Brussels. Moldova’s future in the EU isn’t just about politics; it’s about preserving a shared cultural heritage while embracing the opportunities that come with European integration. 🔑 Did you know? Moldova boasts a vibrant media landscape, with independent outlets like Ziarul de Gardaă and NewsMaker.md leading the charge in investigative journalism and holding power to account. Additionally, TVR Moldova (Teleradio-Moldova), the public broadcaster, plays a vital role in providing news coverage across the country. It aims to offer balanced reporting, particularly on significant political and social issues. - Read the OSCE article about Moldovan Election management and integrity here: https://lnkd.in/e_2ZTJD9 - Find out more about Maison du MédiaLab: https://bit.ly/4eblDrd #Moldova #EUIntegration #EasternEurope #Democracy #MaisonDuMediaLab #SupportJournalism #LocalElections #Europe Christophe Leclercq Sharon Leclercq-Spooner Thierry Leroy Aliaksandr Babiy David Mekkaoui Promote Ukraine Promote Georgia European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) Vsevolod Chentsov Vato Makharoblishvili Daniela Morari Tigran Balayan Marta Barandiy, Ph.D. LL.M. Eur.

Today, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malta as a Republic. For a small country such as Malta to be an independent, democratic republic is nothing short of a miracle, and owes a great deal to political wit. In today's TLDR, we explore how Malta evolved from an independent state under a monarchy, to a fully fledged republic. Sources: The Origins of Maltese Statehood - Henry Frendo (1999) The Birth of the Republic of Malta - Nicholette Schembri By: Spunt.mt

*ANALYSIS OF THE TAX REFORM BILLS* -------------------------------------------- *Copied and shared for public enlightenment- P-BAT ACADEMICS AND PROFESSIONALS GROUP) --------part 2 continue 9. The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (sections 28 and 33 deleted). 10. The Nigeria Start-up Act (sections 25(2), (3), (4) and 29(3) deleted). 11. The Export (Incentives and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (section 11(1) deleted). 12. The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (Establishment, Etc.) Act (section 14(1)(h) deleted). 13. The Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act (subsections (2)(a) and (4) of section 44 and the Second Schedule are deleted). For the subsidiary legislations, the Value Added Tax Act (Modification) Order 2021 will be revoked while the Company Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order 2020 would be amended by deleting paragraph 2 even though the parent legislation, the Company Income Tax, would be repealed. Finally, the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations 1969 would be amended by deleting regulations 60B, 60C, 61(1),(2),(4) and 62. Crucially, the Nigeria Tax Bill included a supremacy clause in section 202, part of which stated that, ”this Act shall take precedence over any other law with regards to the imposition of tax, royalty, levy, excise duty on services or any other tax, where the provisions of any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, the provisions of this Act shall prevail and the provisions of that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.” This clause effectively elevates the NTB to be the supreme legislation on taxes in Nigeria. Significance of the Nigeria Tax Bill for individuals and businesses Apart from trying to simplify tax laws in Nigeria, the Nigeria tax bill also reduced the burden of tax in most cases for individual tax payers and businesses contrary to the narrative in some quarters, amplified that the bills are all about tax increase. I will highlight some provisions in the bill to buttress this point. 1.Reduction in Personal Income Tax: With the new provisions in the NTB, personal income tax would see a progressive reduction in rates with more lower income earners being exempt from paying PIT or paying reduced rates compared to the current rates. The annual tax rate as outlined in the fourth schedule of the bill is as follows: a. First N800k – 0% b. Next N2.2m – 15% c. Next N9m – 18% d. Next N13m – 21% e. Next N25m – 23% and f. Above N50m – 25% Before now, the personal income tax rates for different bands of annual income are as follows: a. First N300k – 7% b. Next N300k – 11% c. Next N500k – 15% d. Next N500k – 19% e. Next N1.6m – 21% f. Above N3.2m 24%

*ANALYSIS OF THE TAX REFORM BILLS* -------------------------------------------- *Copied and shared for public enlightenment- P-BAT ACADEMICS AND PROFESSIONALS GROUP) ------------------ President Bola Tinubu on October 3, 2024 transmitted four tax reform bills to the national assembly. The bills are: 1. Nigeria Tax Bill 2024 2. Nigeria Tax Administration Bill 3. Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill 4. Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill A SUMMARY OF THE NIGERIA TAX BILL, 2024 The Nigeria Tax Bill (hereinafter referred to as the NTB), is a comprehensive piece of legislation that seeks to outline all taxes in the country hitherto administered by virtue of different laws and compress them into a single simplified law. Most importantly, the NTB vests upon the Nigeria Revenue Service (expected to succeed FIRS) powers to collect all national taxes including royalties hitherto collected by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and excise duties, import VAT etc hitherto collected by the Nigeria Customs Service. The coming into force of the Nigeria tax bill will lead to the repeal of 11 laws/enactments while 13 other laws shall experience consequential amendments. The NTB will also lead to the revocation of one subsidiary legislation and consequential amendments on two other subsidiary legislations. The laws that would be revoked once the NTB comes into effect (as currently proposed) include: 1. Capital Gains Tax Act 2. Casino Act 3. Companies Income Tax Act 4. Deep offshore and Inland Basin Act 5. Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) Act 6. Income Tax (Authorised Communications) Act 7. Personal Income Tax Act 8. Petroleum Profits Tax Act 9. Stamp Duties Act 10. Value Added Tax Act and 11. Venture Capital (Incentives) Act. The existing legislation that will witness consequential amendments include: 1. The Petroleum Industry Act, No 6. 2021 (the areas to be deleted in the PIA include: part I – X of chapter four; the Fifth and Sixth Schedule; paragraphs 6, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the Seventh Schedule; and subparagraph 6 of paragraph 14 of the Seventh Schedule. 2. The Nigerian Export Processing Zones Act (sections 8 and 18(1)(a) deleted). 3. The Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Act (sections 8 and 18(1)(a) deleted). 4. The National Information Technology Development Agency Act (sections 1, 2, and 3(3) deleted). 5. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment, Etc.) Act (sections 1, 2, and 3(3) deleted). 6. The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (Establishment) Act (section 20(2), paragraph b(i) and b(ii) deleted). 7. The Customs, Excise Tariffs, Etc. (Consolidation) Act (section 21(2) deleted). 8. The National Lottery Act (sections 35A, 35B and 35C deleted).

😜Highly Recommended Post & Wicked Banter! You had better have a sense of humour if you are Nigerian reading & watching this. So basically in pidgin English, these French guys are singing “ we don chop money ooo “ which suggests France just made a lot of money in Nigeria through government contracts. Which is kinda dubious right, because if you can get government contracts on anything 😀 you don chop money!! To the extent if you use the system to obtain government contracts to enrich yourself, while by and large, the average Nigerian is eeking out a living to survive, your name is j’mapelle Don Chop Money haha 🤣 this is extremely satirical considering France 🇫🇷 is historically a master of connivance when we consider its previous global empire, the excessive irrational exuberance of Versailles, Napoleonic wars and how France obtained massive wealth while Marie Antoinette’s famous words to the French nation back in those hubris days to suffering French people and the masses was, and I quote “ let them eat cake “ so not only do we see a juxtaposed satire & parallel at this state dinner by Macron to honour Nigerian 🇳🇬 President Tinubu, it is indeed satirical to banter a song that ironically says “ I don chop money from Nigerians ooO “ whilst they eat cake 🍰 . As I warned you at the beginning, all of this is in humour & jest as Shakespeare once suggested, our world is a stage and we are merely poor actors living on it!! The other irony to state exploitation debacles in most leading countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom is that, Donald J Trump just gave the corrupt state a bloody nose at the last US Elections. People are grossly underestimating we are moving away from the typical state of people and citizenry exploitation of let them have their cake 🍰 and eat it, to what will ultimately emerge at universal scale! It’s called “ The Sovereign Individual “ and “ Networked State “ from January 20th 2025 onwards. For those who do not yet understand what this means, just do some research. For those of us who thoroughly understand what DOGE really means for the foreseeable future, it is power transfers back to the people! Get it? I bet most still don’t yet get it haha 😜 it’s probably the best time to be alive as power and prosperity transmits back to the people through technology, in a radically emerging decentralised global economy and decentralised state governance. I strongly recommend you read “ Meaning of the 21st Century “ by James Martin of Oxford University, published in 2005. Everything is going to change beyond human comprehension in the 4th Industrial Revolution, a $200 trillion addressable global market and Blockchain Company is helping build a utility cryptocurrency and technological ecosystem called “ 4IR “ Token for this emerging epoch. Visit 4irtoken.com to learn more. It is time you “ the people “ don chop money and not the state at your expense. Are you starting to get it? 🤓 Morpheus thinks 🌿very differently

the comment section though

I am a pro-European girl from the Gagauz minority in Moldova. I am that two per cent which voted YES to European integration against 98 per cent of NOs in Gagauzia. If my fellow villagers were on LinkedIn, I'd probably fear to say it so openly :). But yes, I slept only four hours tonight, constantly checking my phone to see how votes fluctuate from YES to NO and back again. I know it's tempting to celebrate and say great words about Moldovan strength, democracy and EU aspirations. But it does not feel like a win to me. 51% against 49% is not a unanimous voice, even if we take into account all the electoral manipulations and criminal activities of Shor's group. I heard with my ears and saw with my eyes how the votes were bought. But I also listened to people complain about unbearable cost of life and wonder how they will heat their houses this winter. This YES is very fragile. Don't forget, we still have the second round of elections, and the pro-Russian candidate has a real chance to win. We cannot brush the 49% of anti-EU voters off as people brainwashed by Russian propaganda. Their problems are real, the divisions are real, and so are their fears. And it's these fears that will be easily manipulated. We have to address those fears, and explain how exactly a European future will deal with them. Or better still, offer actions that will make our common future better, independently of our ideologies or geopolitical preferences. I know it is not so simple and that we cannot avoid geopolitics, but I wish we talked more about social and economic security. That is what a European future means to me, and I am sure most of the people in my village want those same things. I still have hope.🤞🇪🇺

I couldn't understand why the Spanish government decided to declare recognition of Palestine as a state, it was more requested of it to recognize Catalonia as a state. Spain, the conqueror who continues the legacy of the fascist General Franco preaches morality to Israel? After all, unlike the Palestinians who were invented about 60 years ago, the Catalan people have existed as a people since ancient times and until General Franco, the fascist dictator, conquered them, they were independent most of the time. Unlike Palestine, which is an invented political entity and therefore has no borders, Catalonia has clear borders. But maybe it has to do with money? While Palestine's GNP is one-tenth that of Spain and even smaller compared to Israel's GNP, the Catalan GNP is one-fifth that of Spain, which is much more than their relative share in Spain's population. But as you can hear here, it turns out that inferior and distorted politics leads to distorted decisions.