On today’s farewell visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Sven Giegold, speaker of the German Greens in the European Parliament, comments: “Under Merkel, there was both stagnation and progress in the Franco-German tandem. A ray of hope for Franco-German cooperation was the initiative for the Corona recovery fund in Europe. Merkel’s […]
MEPs call out role of EU politicians, UK & US in money laundering, tax evasion & avoidance
The European Parliament adopted a report on the Pandora Papers, in the wake of the revelations by the ICIJ and others into global tax avoidance, evasion and money laundering. The report was an initiative of the Greens/EFA Group. For the first time, this report sees the European Parliament condemns the role of the United States […]
First Galizia Prize: Investigative research Pegasus Project awarded – consequences from the spying scandal still pending
The first award ceremony of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Investigative Journalism of the European Parliament took place today. The first prize winner is the Pegasus Project of the Forbidden Stories investigative network. The creation of the prize was proposed by Eva Joly and Sven Giegold from the Green Group following the murder of […]
ECB’s monetary policy will become greener and more closely aligned with the daily experience of European citizens
Today, on 8 July 2021, the European Central Bank (ECB) presented the outcome of its Strategy Review. Over 18 months, the ECB had reviewed all elements of its monetary policy, trying to take into account the views of a broad range of stakeholders. The final decision was taken by the Governing Council yesterday. Initially, the […]
Eurogroup: Scholz’ plans for the Banking Union have failed
Yesterday, 17 June 2021, the meeting of the Eurogroup in inclusive format ended without any decisions on strengthening the Banking Union (including the common European Deposit Insurance Scheme EDIS). At the Euro Summit in December 2020, the heads of state and government had called for preparing “a stepwise and time-bound work plan on all outstanding […]
EU infringement proceedings/ECB ruling: Appropriate way to resolve the legal conflict
Tomorrow, 9 June, the EU Commission will officially pave the way to an infringement procedure against Germany. In May last year, I had demanded such an infringement procedure from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the German Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the ECB’s bond purchases. She then promised me that she would […]