The European Parliament’s plenary voted yesterday on its proposal for the EU’s future work on retail financial services, such as insurances, investment products or payment services (the so called “Green Paper on Retail Financial Services”). This Green Paper, adopted in December 2015, sets the stage for the EU’s measures and legislative initiatives to allow consumers […]
Letter to President Juncker on the Commission’s Code of Conduct
Letter to President Juncker and the College of Commissioners on the Commission’s Code of Conduct [Download as pdf] Brussels, 14 November 2016 Dear Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Dear Commissioners of the European Union, In the wake of the public outrage caused by the revolving door move of José Manuel Barroso to Goldman Sachs, we […]
Financial services (PRIIPs): European Parliament and Commission discussed signposts for putting EU rules for complex investment products in practice
Yesterday evening, the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in charge of negotiating the detailed rules which aim at setting the PRIIPs regulation in practice, met representatives of the European Commission for further discussions. In this way, the two parties ensured that a constructive working process would go on, after the plenary of the European […]
Stronger rules for Parliament and Commission on integrity but poor show on lobby transparency and revolving doors
Today the constitutional committee of the European Parliament voted on proposals to change the internal rules of procedure of the Parliament (“Corbett report”). The changing of the rules caused intensive debates over minority rights in the Parliament, lobby transparency, stricter rules on integrity and transparency. The Greens had presented a “plan for integrity and transparency […]
Billions of tax avoidance: BASF has built up a perfidious tax policy
A report published today by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament reveals how the German chemical multinational BASF has been avoiding paying taxes in the European Union on a grand scale for years. The company BASF makes targeted use of tax advantages in individual countries, and particularly benefits from tax havens such as Belgium, […]
Parliament on EU budget: No Christmas bonus for former Commissioners without better integrity rules
On this Wednesday, the European Parliament has voted on the EU budget 2017 and the revision of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF). Several Green amendments were adopted by majority. These include a freeze of 20 percent of the budget line, from which ex-Commissioners receive their transitional allowance payments for 3 years. The freeze will only […]