The economic and financial policy spokesperson for the Greens / EFA Group in the European Parliament, Sven Giegold, comments on the political agreement between the EU and Japan on a free trade agreement (JEFTA): “The agreement presented is only a half-finished house. Controversial building blocks such as investment protection and regulatory cooperation are only […]
EU Commission approves rescue of Monte dei Paschi: Blatant disregard of the Banking Union rules
Today, the EU Commission has approved new state aid of € 5.4 billion for Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The EU Commission is responding to the desire of the Italian government for a “precautionary bank recapitalization”. Senior creditors and depositors will therefore be protected against their losses. The EU Commission believes that the state aid […]
United in Diversity: European Parliament calling for strict common rules for Covered Bonds
This Tuesday, the European Parliament voted on the initiative report “Towards a pan-European covered bonds framework”. Covered bonds are debt securities issued by a bank or mortgage institution and collateralised against a pool of assets. Holders of covered bonds are protected twice, through recourse against the issuer and the collateral, a safety mechanism known as […]
Multinational corporations: Country-by-country reporting is a major win for tax justice
The European Parliament has today backed proposals for public country-by-country reporting of financial information, a major tool in the fight for tax justice. Public country-by-country reporting would require large multinationals operating within the EU to publish financial information for all territories in which they operate, including those out-with the EU. The Greens/EFA group has supported […]
A Pan-European pension: Europe’s consumers profit from the first European financial product
The European Commission today presented a proposal for a Pan-European private pension product. The draft regulation for European pension products called “PEPP” (Pan-European Pension Product) is intended to set European rules and quality standards for retirement provision products. This would make these pension products comparable and transferable to other countries across the EU. Insurance companies, […]
Record penalty for Google: Europe proves its muscles against abuse of market power in the digital sector
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced today that the EU Commission imposed a record penalty of 2.42 billion euro on Google. As the European competition authority, the EU Commission accuses Google, among other things, of preferring its own services in the shopping search engine and thus to discriminate against those of others. The EU Commission […]