EndFATCA is fighting to end FATCA and discrimination against EU/US duals citizens and US citizens in Europe, as well as remove barriers to renunciation.
They have previously submitted a petition and appeared several times before the EU Parliament in the past five years. They are now presenting a supplemental petition to the European Parliament on September 2nd. Any resident of the EU, or any person with EU citizenship who resides anywhere in the world, can sign the petition. Please add your support! (You can also read about the Petition on the EU Parliament’s wehsite: Petition No 0323/2021)
The 13 requests in the Petition are also briefly described at this link
As well as Europeans, EndFATCA’s website is of interest and use to US persons and FATCA fighters around the world, as it also includes access to 1300 supporting documents and a list of all important initiatives around the world against FATCA.
Does one need to be an EU national to sign the petition?
Where were Ursula von der Leyen’s twins born? Europe or the US? The two sources say she has twins born in 1994 and she stayed in California between 1992 to 1996 so it’s possible she had them in the US or did she fly back to Europe just for the births?
If her twins were US-born, FATCA follows her children as well unless the banks will cover up for them.
https://religion.princeton.edu/people/students/graduate-students/victoria-von-der-leyen/
It appears her daughter is a doctoral student at Princeton. Did she pick Princeton because of her US citizenship making the choice easier? Assuming she’s subject to US immigration which I can’t see why she wouldn’t be or in the US on a EU Diplomatic passport of sorts???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen
In 1980, she switched to studying medicine and enrolled at the Hannover Medical School, where she graduated in 1987 and acquired her medical license.[30] From 1988 to 1992, she worked as an assistant physician at the Women’s Clinic of the Hannover Medical School. Upon completing her doctoral studies, she graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1991. Following the birth of twins, she was a housewife in Stanford, California, from 1992 to 1996, while her husband was a faculty member of Stanford University.[31]
https://praxistipps.focus.de/ursula-von-der-leyen-vermoegen-kinder-und-weitere-infos_115490
Das Paar hat sieben gemeinsame Kinder: David (geboren 1987), Sophie (1989), Maria Donata (1992), die Zwillinge Johanna und Victoria (1994), Egmont (1998) und Gracia (1999). Die Familie lebt seit 2007 bei Hannover, auf dem Anwesen von Ursula von der Leyens verstorbenen Vater.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/biography-candidate-present_en
@Steve
It’s probably the case that quite a few public figures in Europe or elsewhere have Accidental American children, if they ever studied or worked in the US. Whether they make this a personal crusade depends on how they feel about FATCA and how much grief it causes their kids, I suppose.
As someone who did this, I can say that using US citizenship to go to grad school south of the border was convenient, but not hugely advantageous. You enter on a passport instead of a student visa, you can work off campus without restrictions, and you are eligible for US government loans. But there’s no tuition reduction or additional scholarship funding, generally speaking.
@ Ron H and All,
I’ve heard back from EndFATCA and they said, “Any resident of the EU or Can/EU citizen can sign regardless of nationality,”
I’m assuming from this that “Can/EU citizen regardless of nationality” refers to any EU citizen or any type of EU dual citizen; And that, as they mention “resident of the EU” in the first phrase, that that the second phrase refers to an EU citizen (uni or dual) anywhere in the world.
I’ve updated the main post to reflect this, but I’m e-mailing End FATCA to confirm my interpretation is accurate. If not, I’ll post a comment here as well as re-updating the main post.
That is some textbook ambiguity there, but perhaps the author does not have English as their first language. What I would assume that statement to mean is that you can sign the petition in if either of the following conditions is true:
(1) you are resident in an EU country, regardless of your nationality
or
(2) you are citizen of an EU country, regardless of your country of residence or other nationalities
New article today by Helen Burggraf on several European FATCA issues, including this petition/presentation, the French lawsuit and the UK lawsuit.
https://americanexpatfinance.com/legislation/item/805-us-european-group-claims-eu-discriminates
I wish the petitioners good luck. Their legal arguments are sound. My worry is that political considerations will prevail and the EU will continue to perpetuate injustice against the various so-called US persons. Forgive my cynicism, but the arbitrariness of travel bans, lockdowns, and 50% plus tax rates against successful people make me very sceptical of seeing justice in the US, EU, and most Western countries.
I just found an article about today’s presentation by EndFATCA on a blog by Dutch lawyer, Ellen TImmer.
https://ellentimmer.com/2021/08/30/fatca-84/
A search for FATCA on her blog turned up several other articles on it, too. Some are in English and some in Dutch.
Signed!!
Steve: it would be interesting if Ursula von der Leyen had children with FATCA issues. I was unable to find out more with a brief Google search. Of course as we know, if true it would hardly be a cause for optimism. Politicians (see Johnson, Boris) just deal with the FATCA issue on their own and do not try to help others. Their main concern is their career.
Ursula recently complainted that she couldn’t enter the US due to their travel restrictions. I’d suspect she wanted to see her daughter, in grad school,there. As for tax filing requirements there, with that she should be acquainted, as she has had a few daughters pass through the US door somewhat regularly temporarily for most part .
Ursula will not cast stones,nor create ripples , when it comes to FATCA. She will shy away from such risky endeavors,as almost all other EU parliamentarians have done.