Next week on 15 February the European Parliament will vote on the EU-Canada Agreement CETA. After this vote, the agreement will be applied provisionally and must then be ratified by all Parties to the Agreement, including the 28 EU Member States. The disputed additional protection of foreign investors is expressly excluded from provisional application. […]
Panama Papers committee delegation to Malta: visit without guests
Several Maltese invitees have not yet committed to meet the European Parliament Panama Papers committee (PANA) in Malta on Monday 20th of February. As part of a fact-finding mission to the country, Members of the European Parliament requested a meeting with Members of the Maltese Parliament who so far have not responded. Additionally, PANA asked […]
Tax havens: EU blacklist must not be obstructed
On Tuesday, the EU Council sent letters to 92 countries to draw up a list of ‘non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes’’ by the end of 2017. In November 2016, EU finance ministers agreed on the rough criteria for such an EU blacklist. If a country does not meet the minimum standards of tax transparency and […]
Study on EU politicians: The revolving door to lobbyism throws the gates open for discontent by citizens
Transparency International’s newest study on the careers of 485 former Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and 27 former EU Commissioners shows how many of those politicians afterwards become lobbyists. 30 percent of former MEPs and more than 50 percent of former Commissioners work by now for organisations on the Transparency Register for lobbyists. […]
ECON votes on Banking Union report: MEPs want financial reforms to continue
The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament today voted on an initiative report assessing the state of play of the Banking Union. The report adopted today includes requests for solutions to the problems connected with non-performing loans (NPLs), too-big-to-fail institutions, and excessive variability of bank-internal risk-weighting models. The final text also […]
Eurogroup should give green light for Greece before election season
The Eurogroup meets tomorrow to discuss the ongoing second review of Greece’s economic adjustment programme. The Greens are calling for the quick resumption of the negotiations and the conclusion of the second review before March 2017, and demanding there be no further pressure on Greece to enact damaging economic reforms. Commenting ahead of the […]