MEPs call for measures to halt tax evasion by crooks and tax avoidance by multinational companies costing the EU up to a trillion euros a year.

Making big companies pay their taxes

But many multinational corporations  and criminals don't, or not enough.

It's been estimated that  every year €1 trillion are lost

That's about €2,000  for every EU citizen.

That means it's the same amount as  all of our collective public deficits together

or what we spend on healthcare  in the whole of the EU

Think of what we could do with it  to beat the recession,

in terms of youth unemployment,  supporting young people back into jobs.

It's a scandal of lost resources  and we have to get the money back.

EU lawmakers want to rein in tax evasion  and avoidance schemes.

But tax avoidance schemes are legal  and, politically, change hasn't been easy.

Luxembourg has a huge banking sector  and is opposed to information sharing

until Monaco and Switzerland,  for instance, do the same.

The rules that are implemented  must be implemented in the same way,

and this is the only reason why  Luxembourg is saying,

'We don't want to widen the scope  of the EU Savings Directive

before we know what other countries  are willing to do.'

A suggested crackdown on tax evasion  and tax avoidance

has dominated talk  at a summit meeting in Brussels,

although many feel that any solution  must be global - the EU cannot do it alone.

But it can make life more difficult  for big companies that don't pay their share.

The computer giant Apple paid just 2% tax  on its overseas earnings

by exploiting a loophole in Ireland's tax laws  and there are many similar examples.

Measures like excluding  tax-dodging companies

from public contracts and state aids  may help but it won't cure the problem.

When will humanity be perfect?  It never will be.

What we can do is reduce the margins  of error, reduce the possibilities for fraud.

Even if the problem is smaller,  it will still exist in some form.