European Union

The Paris climate change agreement should not leave out aviation and shipping, two sectors whose emissions are rocketing and, if left unregulated, could account for up to 40% of all global emissions by 2050, (according to a European Parliament study), said the EP delegation on Tuesday. MEPs also advocate earmarking carbon market revenues as a possible solution for financing climate efforts.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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EU Ministers of Finance meet in Brussels on 8 December 2015 to discuss a proposed European deposit insurance scheme, implementation of the banking union, the prevention of terrorist financing, taxation and the European Semester.

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Ever been hit by a computer virus? You are not the only one. More than one million people are affected by cybercrime every day. Cybercrime costs the global economy more than $400 billion (about €368 billion) a year. Find out about the different types of cyber threats out there in our infographic.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

ERRATUM to the report on arms export: implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Bodil Valero

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 8 December 2015, the Council approved the conclusion of agreements with Liechtenstein and Switzerland aimed at improving tax compliance by private savers. 

The two agreements will contribute to efforts to clamp down on tax evasion, by requiring the EU member states and the two countries to exchange information automatically. 

This will allow their tax administrations improved cross-border access to information on the financial accounts of each other's residents. 

The agreements upgrade 2004 agreements that ensured that Liechtenstein and Switzerland applied measures equivalent to those in an EU directive on the taxation of savings income. The aim is to extend the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts in order to prevent taxpayers from hiding capital representing income or assets for which tax has not been paid. 

The Council also approved the signing of a similar taxation agreement with San Marino, ahead of a signature ceremony later in the day.

The EU-Switzerland agreement was signed on 27 May 2015, and the EU-Liechtenstein agreement on 28 October 2015.

On 8 December 2015, the Council adopted a directive aimed at improving transparency on tax rulings given by member states to companies in specific cases about how taxation will be dealt with. 

The directive is one of a number of initiatives aimed at preventing corporate tax avoidance. 

It will require member states to exchange information automatically on advance cross-border tax rulings, as well as advance pricing arrangements. Member states receiving the information will be able to request further information where appropriate. 

The Commission will be able to develop a secure central directory, where the information exchanged would be stored. The directory will be accessible to all member states and, to the extent that it is required for monitoring the correct implementation of the directive, to the Commission.

A tax ruling is an assurance that a tax authority gives to a taxpayer on how certain aspects of taxation will be dealt with in that specific case. An advance pricing arrangement is a type of tax ruling, issued by a tax authority to determine the method and other relevant details of pricing to be applied to a transfer of goods or services between companies. 

Tax planning

Tax planning by companies has become more elaborate in recent years, developing across jurisdictions. It involves, for example, the shifting of taxable profits towards states with more advantageous tax regimes, or eroding the tax base. 

The directive will ensure that where one member state issues an advance tax ruling or transfer pricing arrangement, any other member state affected is in a position to monitor the situation and the possible impact on its tax revenue. 

International fora 

The directive is in line with developments within the OECD and its work on tax base erosion and profit shifting. G20 leaders approved the outcome of that work at a summit in Antalya on 15 and 16 November 2015. 

Application 

The Council reached political agreement on the directive on 6 October 2015. The European Parliament gave its opinion on 27 October 2015. 

The new rules will be applied from 1 January 2017. In the meantime, existing obligations for member states to exchange information will stay in place. 

Concerning rulings issued before 1 January 2017, the following rules will apply: 

• If advance cross-border rulings and advance pricing arrangements are issued, amended or renewed between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2013, such communication shall take place under the condition that they are still valid on 1 January 2014.
• If advance cross-border rulings and advance pricing arrangements are issued, amended or renewed between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2016, such communication shall take place irrespectively of whether they are still valid or not.
• Member states will have the possibility (not an obligation) to exclude from information exchange advance tax rulings and pricing arrangements issued to companies with an annual net turnover of less than €40 million at a group level, if such advance cross-border rulings and advance pricing arrangements were issued, amended or renewed before 1 April 2016.  However, this exemption will not apply to companies conducting mainly financial or investment activities.

Package of measures

The Commission proposed the directive as part of a package of measures in March 2015. The text amends directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation, which sets out practical arrangements for exchanging information.

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Transport and energy companies will have to ensure that the digital infrastructure that they use to deliver essential services, such as traffic control or electricity grid management, is robust enough to withstand cyber-attacks, under new rules provisionally agreed by internal market MEPs and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on Monday. Online marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, search engines and clouds will also be required to ensure that their infrastructure is secure.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Transport and energy companies will have to ensure that the digital infrastructure that they use to deliver essential services, such as traffic control or electricity grid management, is robust enough to withstand cyber-attacks, under new rules provisionally agreed by internal market MEPs and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on Monday. Online marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, search engines and clouds will also be required to ensure that their infrastructure is secure.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

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EU Finance Ministers of the eurozone meet in Brussels on 7 December 2015 to discuss further steps on the banking union's single supervisory mechanism, the state of play on Greece and the Ireland post-programme surveillance.

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On 7 December 2015, the Luxembourg presidency of the Council reached an informal agreement with the European Parliament on common rules to strengthen network and information security  (NIS) across the EU.

The new directive will set out cybersecurity obligations for operators of essential services and digital service providers. These operators will be required to take measures to manage cyber risks and report major security incidents, but the two categories will be subject to different regimes.

Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Minister for Communications and the Media, and President of the Council, said: "This is an important step towards a more coordinated approach in cybersecurity across Europe. All actors, public and private, will have to step up their efforts, in particular by increased cooperation between member states and enhanced security requirements for infrastructure operators and digital services".

Stronger rules for essential operators

The directive lists a number of critical sectors in which operators of essential services are active, such as energy, transport, finance and health. Within these sectors, member states will identify the operators providing essential services, based on clear criteria laid down in the directive. The requirements and supervision will be stronger for these operators than for providers of digital services. This reflects the degree of risk that any disruption to their services may pose to society and the economy.

A more uniform regime for digital service providers

The following digital services will be covered by the directive: e-commerce platforms, search engines and cloud services.

Digital service providers are typically active in many member states. To ensure that they are treated in a similar way across the EU, the rules will apply to all operators providing such services, with the exclusion of small companies.

National and EU-level frameworks to counter cyber threats

Each EU country will be required to designate one or more national authorities and set out a strategy to deal with cyber matters.

Member states will also step up their cooperation on cybersecurity. An EU-level cooperation group will be created to support strategic cooperation and exchange of best practices among member states. A network of national computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) will be set up to promote operational cooperation. Both are also expected to help develop confidence and trust between member states.

Deadlines

Member states will have 21 months from the directive's entry into force to adopt the necessary national provisions. Following this period, they will have 6 further months to identify their operators of essential services.

How will it become law?

For the Council, the deal still has to be confirmed by member states. The presidency will present the agreed text for approval by member states' ambassadors at the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) on 18 December. To conclude the procedure, formal adoption by both the Council and the Parliament is required.

Good evening everyone and welcome to this press conference. I was going to say that we've had busier turnouts - looking at the audience tonight - but it makes sense, because we also had a short Eurogroup meeting. 

Let me first make a couple of remarks on Greece, which was one of the countries discussed today. After successful implementation of the first set of milestones last month, today we took stock of the implementation of the second set of milestones. Which as you know are connected to the last sub-tranche of €1 bn. The design of the second set has been agreed by the EWG at the end of November. We called on the Greek authorities to implement these milestones as soon as possible and as agreed. The objective is to settle this by mid-December, so that we can focus on some of the major fiscal and structural reforms that are still open and need to be finalised for the first review early next year.  

Recapitalisation of the four significant banks is almost finalised. We expect the last disbursement to be made tomorrow after approval of the ESM Board of Directors. Overall, a good success with significant involvement from private investors. The exercise will cost the programme less than €5½ bn, well below, as you know, initial estimates.  

Secondly, we welcomed Danièle Nouy, the SSM chair. She joined us for one of our regular exchanges of views as part of what's called the accountability arrangements for the SSM. She informed us on the execution of the supervisory work by the SSM, in particular the recent Comprehensive Assessments and the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), as well as on the SSM's key policy challenges and priorities going forward.  

We had a thematic discussion on pensions and pension reforms, which are central to fiscal sustainability in the euro area. Top of the agenda in many member states that have already enacted considerable pension reforms. But pension expenditure is still one of the main challenges for long-term sustainability. Alongside addressing pension expenditures, we need a range of policies to ensure that retirement incomes remain sufficient in the future. There is also a strong link, which was mentioned by a number of colleagues, to reforms on the issue of long-term care, the costs of care, which are also linked to the aging of our populations. And also reforms of the labour market, making sure that also all employees can still participate in the labour market. We will come back to those issues, the issues of pension reforms, over the course of the next year. We've asked both the Commission to come forward with some sustainability scenarios, also scenarios with more downside risks, to check whether stresses in our systems, and we've asked EWG to do more work on also the possibility of benchmarking pension reforms. So we will come back to those issues in a second round next year.  

As I've said, we also discussed some country issues. A post-programme surveillance of Ireland took place in November 2015. The institutions informed us about the main findings of the review. I don't need to tell you all this. Very strong economic growth. Continued improvement on the fiscal and financial side. Overall an impressive performance by Ireland.  

Two years after the end of the programme, I think Ireland once again demonstrates that determined implementation of an adjustment programme can turn an economy around, to the benefit of citizens.  

We also discussed Portugal, in a different way. We welcomed the new Portuguese finance minister, Mário Centeno, to the Eurogroup, and his state secretary Ricardo Mourinho Félix. The minister outlined the new government's economic policy priorities and has assured us that he will come with a draft budgetary plan as soon as possible, probably at the beginning of the January 2016, for us to be able to discuss that with the Commission's opinion in our February meeting. This is how I see it in the planning.  

Finally one remark: we've come to an agreement on the constituency for the AIIB, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. We discussed it last month, had a silent procedure; after that only Finland said that they can not enter in the constituency at this point, but the other countries will make a start with a eurozone constituency and we will now concentrate on setting up what is called a constituency agreement. Work will be done on that by the EWG. So that is very good news as we have an agreement for that.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The EU Commission should investigate why Google offers its “Android” operating system only in conjunction with other Google services and also why manufacturers allegedly may not pre-install rival products; MEPs say in a response to the Commission’s annual competition report for 2014.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The EU Commission should investigate why Google offers its “Android” operating system only in conjunction with other Google services and also why manufacturers allegedly may not pre-install rival products; MEPs say in a response to the Commission’s annual competition report for 2014.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP