European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today commented in the European Parliament on the European Council’s unilateral declaration to postpone the application of the rule of law mechanism. In substance, the Commission President has stuck to the delay of the application of the rule of law mechanism, which she promised to the European Council. […]
ECB gives in to lobby demands: Banks may resume dividend despite massive public support
Yesterday evening, on 15 December 2020, the ECB decided to relax the dividend freeze that had been in place since March for the large European banks under its supervision. The ECB had previously recommended banks to refrain entirely from distributing profits and buying back shares during the crisis. Due to a lack of legal powers, […]
EU Drinking Water Directive: Clean water for the whole EU
The first successful European citizens’ initiative “Right2Water” for EU-wide access to clean drinking water becomes European law. Today (Tuesday, December 15), the President of the Parliament announced the European Parliament’s approval of the outcome of negotiations on the EU Drinking Water Directive (“Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the quality of […]
New EU-proposal: Batteries become clean
Today, December 10, the EU Commission presented a legislative proposal for a new battery regulation. The new regulation is intended to guarantee a safe and sustainable circular economy for all batteries on the European market. The proposal for a new regulation must now be passed by the European Parliament and the Council before it can […]
Gabriel Zucman to lead new European Tax Observatory!
Dear friends and all those who are interested, It is now official: there will be a European Tax Observatory headed by the renowned progressive tax economist Gabriel Zucman! This will implement an idea of us Greens, which we launched in October 2019 together with Social Democrats and Liberals in the European Parliament. That is great […]
Budget blockade by Hungary/Poland: EU Council Presidency should start “enhanced cooperation” to ensure corona aid flows
Today, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn and Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki meet in Budapest to discuss their approach to their EU budget blockade. So far, the two countries are blocking the disbursement of urgently needed funds from the Corona recovery programs because they do not accept the rule of law mechanism. The EU heads of […]