Today, the EU Commission’s Technical Expert Group published recommendations on sustainable finance. Last spring, the EU Commission had presented various legislative proposals as part of its action plan for sustainable finance. The expert group’s recommendations relate to the classification of sustainable investments (taxonomy), a methodology for sustainable benchmark indices, measures for climate-related disclosure obligations and […]

At their meeting yesterday, the finance ministers of the euro area countries wanted to agree on three key reforms to deepen the economic and monetary union: a separate budgetary instrument for the euro area, the fiscal backstop for the Single Resolution Fund (SRF) provided by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and progress towards a European […]

Commenting on the outcome of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Fukuoka, Japan, Sven Giegold, spokesperson for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the European Parliament, said:   “The progress against tax dumping by digital companies is encouraging. But, there is still a long way to go to reach an agreement. There are significant differences of opinion […]

As leaders of four political groups of the European Parliament – EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA – we met today for the second time since the European Parliament elections. We agreed on a political process aimed at defining a common ambition for the next legislative period. This will provide the basis on which we expect […]

Today, the Commission has presented its European Semester 2019 Spring Package and concluded that for Italy a debt-based Excessive Deficit Procedure is warranted. If EU Member States back this assessment in the next two weeks, the EU Commission could subsequently recommend to start the procedure against Italy, possibly before a meeting of EU finance ministers […]