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 […]
Green light for Portugal’s recovery plan: now it’s a matter of implementation
Today, 16 June, the EU Commission approved Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan worth around 16 billion euros. This evening, Spain’s plan will follow, and the Danish and Greek plans are also close to approval. Crucially, the national recovery plans need to meet the landmark targets of at least 37% spending on the Green Deal and […]
EU Digital COVID Certificate: Regaining free movement in a safe and citizen-friendly way
Yesterday, on Tuesday 8th June 2021, a large majority of the members of the European Parliament voted for the introduction of the COVID Certificate. This vote came after a thorough negotiation between the European Parliament, the Member States and the European Commission. In those negotiations, we, as Greens, addressed many of the concerns that we […]
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 […]
New rules for Bitcoin & Co: My proposals for the EU crypto regulation
Dear friends, dear interested, Europe is finally moving forward with the regulation of crypto-assets. This is to introduce binding rules for existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and to create a framework for innovative financial services based on blockchain. After the EU Commission presented a legislative proposal for Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) last autumn, […]
Cyprus announces veto on minimum effective corporate taxation: Europe must act now
June 3. The Economic and Monetary Affairs committee of the European Parliament has just held an exchange of views with Constantinos Petrides, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Cyprus. His governing party is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP). When I asked him about his country’s support for a minimum effective corporate […]