The European Commission today presented its annual set of economic and fiscal policy recommendations to EU member states based on its assessment of national reform programmes, as part of the European Semester. The Greens have been consistently critical of the one-sided focus on fiscal consolidation and austerity and welcomed the Commission’s decision to relax its […]
Consultation on anti-money-laundering proposals
Earlier this year the European Commission published a proposal for revising the directive on money laundering and terrorist financing. As usual we are interested in comments from and insights of professionals and stakeholders. Is the Commissions’ assessment of the current situation appropriate? Are the proposals adequate to overcome the huge deficits in the fight against […]
FATCA hearing in the ECON committee
Tomorrow, on Tuesday 28 May at 15.30 the Economy and Financial Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will carry out a hearing on the question: The fight against tax evasion – FATCA as a step towards international automatic exchange of information? The debate on tax justice and untransparent international financial transactions had last been triggered […]
Economic monetary union: Next steps towards economic union must have democratic accountability at core
The European Parliament today adopted a resolution on the future direction of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) (1). With proposals to give the European Commission ex-ante coordination of economic policy reforms in EU member and to introduce an instrument for convergence and competitiveness as a financial incentive for implementing reforms committed at national level […]
EU banking union
Landmark banking supervision rules approved; final go-ahead pending agreement on EP scrutiny An agreement on new EU legislation creating a European banking supervision mechanism was given provisional approval by the European Parliament today but a final vote on the legislation was postponed until more clarity on the EP’s scrutiny role is provided. Green finance spokesperson […]
Tax evasion:
Shameless obstructionism on banking transparency must be overcome
EU finance ministers today failed to agree on ending loopholes in the EU savings directive, under which Luxembourg and Austria are exempted from provisions on automatic information exchange, due to continued opposition from those two countries. The Greens hit out at the continued obstruction by Luxembourg and Austria to this key measure aimed at ensuring […]