Fair tax policies in the western Balkans: challenges and recommendations for a trade union agenda

This article examines the structure and scale of taxation in four western Balkans countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – in the context of the work of the international trade union organisations (the ITUC and the ETUC) to improve tax fairness and justice, and in seeking to hold multinational enterprises better to account. Based on a review of evidence from publications in the field authored by the major international organisations and drawing in particular on the Staff Working Documents produced by the European Commission, supplemented by field material gathered first-hand from trade unions active within these countries, the author sets out the challenges facing each of them in coming to terms with squeezed public finances, not least as a result of Covid-19, in the context of sizeable demands for public investment to deliver better public services. She closes by setting out an agenda which trade unions might adopt in broadening their calls for tax reform and, crucially, in developing the public debate about tax fairness and building alliances for change.