Today, Wednesday, the Commission presented its long-awaited Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Almost 20 years after the Commission last presented a comprehensive paper on chemicals policy, today’s publication is intended to pave the way towards a toxic-free environment. The chemicals strategy is the first concrete implementation of the “zero pollution” ambition of the European Green Deal. […]
Eurogroup / candidate for ECB executive board: European Parliament must insist on gender-balanced shortlist
Today, the Euro finance ministers in the Eurogroup agreed on a candidate to succeed Yves Mersch for the ECB executive board. The candidate is to be proposed tomorrow by the Council for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) before being appointed by the European Council, following opinions from the European Parliament and the Governing Council of […]
EU Parliament will announce the rules for a new “Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for journalism”
Directly after the murder of Daphne three years ago Eva Joly and myself demanded the creation of a “European prize for investigative journalism” in the name of Daphne Caruana Galizia and modelled on the Sakharov Prize. Only one month later in November 2017 the plenary of the European Parliament supported the idea with a large […]
Tax scandal around corona test manufacturer Qiagen: Public funding collected, taxes avoided
Today, the Dutch non-governmental organisation SOMO published a report on aggressive tax avoidance methods of the biotech company Qiagen. Qiagen is one of the leading manufacturers of coronavirus tests and has made high profits during the pandemic. Qiagen is based in Germany and aggressively avoids taxes through a network of companies in Luxembourg, the Netherlands […]
McGuinness: An Irish for financial markets consumer protection and sustainable finance
Today the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs held a hearing with the Commissioner-designate Mairead McGuinness. McGuinness is the candidate to succeed the resigned Irish Commissioner Hogan. McGuinness would take over the financial market portfolio from Commission Vice-President Dombrovskis, while the latter is to take over the trading portfolio. McGuinness is a committed and strong […]
Banned poison in imported jewellery must have political consequences
Dear friends, Dear interested, The door is wide open for the import of illegal and dangerous products into the EU. The European Chemicals Agency, in cooperation with the chemicals regulation enforcement and customs authorities in 16 EU member states, has tested imported products for their compliance with EU laws. The results are alarming. Almost a […]