European Union

The Council has agreed to additional funding by the European Investment Bank for projects outside the EU that address migration issues.

Up to €3.7 billion would be earmarked for projects that address the root causes of migration and the needs of transit and host communities.

On 5 April 2017, EU ambassadors asked the presidency to start negotiations with the European Parliament. They approved a mandate for the negotiations, on behalf of the Council.

A first 'trilogue' meeting with the Parliament and the Commission is scheduled for 12 April 2017.

"I have no doubt that on this issue we can come to a swift agreement with the European Parliament”, said Edward Scicluna, minister for finance of Malta, which currently holds the Council presidency. “We both agree that the needs are great and urgent. We also hope we can do more through other EU programmes. This week's informal Ecofin in Malta will explore these possibilities."

Ambassadors agreed in principle to:

• release €3 billion approved conditionally as part of the EIB's €30 billion budget for 'external' operations for the 2014-2020 period;
  
  
• provide an additional €2.3 billion for that period.

The proposed decision and regulation are part of a mid-term review of the EIB's external lending mandate. In 2014 it was agreed that the €3 billion could only be activated following the review.

Projects outside the EU represent less than 10% of total EIB financing activities.

The proposals require a qualified majority within the Council, in agreement with the Parliament. (Legal basis: articles 209 and 212 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.)

I strongly condemn the chemical attack against innocent people of Syria, which left more than 70 people dead and hundreds hospitalised in Idlib province yesterday, including women and children. It is clear that the Assad regime once again has crossed the red line and these actions constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community cannot once more show its weakness, and remain inactive in the face of such atrocities.
We all know the names of those who are politically responsible for this barbaric attack. International investigation of this heinous war crime is needed and all responsible for massive killing of people of Syria should be brought to justice, regardless of the position they held.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Multilateral measures are urgently needed to manage the unprecedented numbers of migrants on the move worldwide, and not least to halt migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, MEPs urge in a resolution voted on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Multilateral measures are urgently needed to manage the unprecedented numbers of migrants on the move worldwide, and not least to halt migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, MEPs urge in a resolution voted on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : New rules to make money market funds (MMFs) more resistant to crises and market turbulence were approved on Wednesday. MFFs supply easily accessible liquid assets to business start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but can be vulnerable to panic runs on their money.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : New rules to make money market funds (MMFs) more resistant to crises and market turbulence were approved on Wednesday. MFFs supply easily accessible liquid assets to business start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but can be vulnerable to panic runs on their money.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs oppose EU Commission plans to authorise imports of food and feed products derived from or containing a herbicide and pest-resistant genetically modified (GM) maize in a resolution voted on Wednesday. It highlights the lack of data on the many sub-combinations of the variety - all of which would also be authorised - and reiterates Parliament’s call for a reform of the EU’s GMO authorisation procedure.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs oppose EU Commission plans to authorise imports of food and feed products derived from or containing a herbicide and pest-resistant genetically modified (GM) maize in a resolution voted on Wednesday. It highlights the lack of data on the many sub-combinations of the variety - all of which would also be authorised - and reiterates Parliament’s call for a reform of the EU’s GMO authorisation procedure.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Plans to make it easier to move money around within the EU’s long-run budget, to help tackle urgent challenges such as the migration crisis, strengthening security, boosting growth and creating jobs, were backed by Parliament on Wednesday. MEPs have long fought for greater flexibility within the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), which would apply for the remainder of the 2014-2020 MFF.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Plans to make it easier to move money around within the EU’s long-run budget, to help tackle urgent challenges such as the migration crisis, strengthening security, boosting growth and creating jobs, were backed by Parliament on Wednesday. MEPs have long fought for greater flexibility within the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), which would apply for the remainder of the 2014-2020 MFF.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs have approved €71,524,810 in EU aid to repair damage caused by floods in the UK from December 2015 to January 2016, drought and fires in Cyprus from October 2015 to June 2016 and fires on the Portuguese island of Madeira in August 2016, in a vote on Wednesday. The aid comes from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF).

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs have approved €71,524,810 in EU aid to repair damage caused by floods in the UK from December 2015 to January 2016, drought and fires in Cyprus from October 2015 to June 2016 and fires on the Portuguese island of Madeira in August 2016, in a vote on Wednesday. The aid comes from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF).

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : An overwhelming majority of the house (516 votes in favour, 133 against, with 50 abstentions) adopted a resolution officially laying down the European Parliament’s key principles and conditions for its approval of the UK's withdrawal agreement. Any such agreement at the end of UK-EU negotiations will need to win the approval of the European Parliament.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : An overwhelming majority of the house (516 votes in favour, 133 against, with 50 abstentions) adopted a resolution officially laying down the European Parliament’s key principles and conditions for its approval of the UK's withdrawal agreement. Any such agreement at the end of UK-EU negotiations will need to win the approval of the European Parliament.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

At a recent Friends of Europe roundtable on the 4th Industrial Revolution, Estonian MEP Kaja Kallas put her finger on one of the most alarming threats confronting Europe. It’s hidden from sight, but of profound importance. It’s not the eurozone, nor the EU’s widening north-south gap. In fact, it’s none of the problems making headlines today, but something far more fundamental and scary.

Kallas made the point with an almost century-old anecdote about industrialist Henry Ford and trade union leader Walter Reuther. Ford, showing off his newly-installed automated assembly lines, boasted of the huge boosts these would give to productivity, and therefore profitability.

“Yes,” replied Reuther, “but your robots won’t be buying your cars,” referring to Ford’s famed start-up policy of ensuring that all his employees could buy a car on advantageous terms.

Now, an ageing Europe needs to start planning for how artificial intelligence will change our industrial society – and find its own solutions to the rise of untaxable, non-consuming machines.

The implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and the robotics revolution are especially unsettling for Europe. Debate about the march of the robots has so far centred on whether or not they will destroy jobs and usher in an era of massive long-term structural unemployment. But we should instead be worrying about an opposite effect.

“The implications of artificial intelligence and the robotics revolution are especially unsettling for Europe”

There will of course be disruption as machines take over mechanically routine tasks and even make inroads into sophisticated services currently performed by skilled technicians. The safest jobs probably range from the intellectually creative to the more humdrum, such as plumbers.

But far from there being too many workers, vulnerable to the robots or not, there won’t be enough of them. Robotics may well compensate for dramatic shrinkages of population and of workforces in almost all EU countries, but as Walter Reuther observed, smart machines won’t consume and nor will they pay taxes.

Europe’s demographic outlook is widely ignored. Policymakers tend to shelve ageing and shrinking as problems for tomorrow. But they are very real threats advancing on us at breakneck speed. Despite the attention justly paid to unemployment, especially among young people, Europe has a labour shortage that is rapidly getting worse.

The working age population of the EU, including the UK, is currently 240 million. Immigration, controversial as it is, isn’t keeping up with the rate of retirement.

If migrant job-seekers continue to arrive at their present rate, the European workforce will drop to around 207 million by the middle of this century. That means there won’t be enough people in work with taxable incomes to pay for retirees’ pensions. (And there will be just two workers per pensioner, not the four we currently have.)

“If migrant job-seekers continue to arrive at their present rate, the European workforce will drop to around 207 million by the middle of this century”

No one can yet forecast with any confidence the impact of robots on industrialised societies. Perhaps they’ll help care for our aged populations, while also making us wealthier. But it’s hard to find silver linings to a cloud that consists of untaxable, non-consuming machines along with unstoppable waves of would-be immigrants who lack the skills needed to complement the robots.

The hole in governments’ finances that a reduction of more than 30 million taxpaying workers implies risks crippling Europeans’ cherished social welfare systems. Perhaps the robots’ profitability will fill some of the gap, but these machines will also be available to competitors worldwide. And that also makes it tricky to tax them directly.

On the brighter side, the AI revolution could be turned to advantage if policymakers quickly seize its opportunities. E-learning could teach skills that would transform the economies of developing countries – especially in Africa.

In Europe, where the stakes are so high, a revolution in education is needed to produce a new generation of IT-savvy workers. The first step is for the European Union to focus on this major shift in our industrial society and start planning for it.

Related content:

• Friends of Europe: Making Europe a place where new ideas can flourish, by Max Müller
• Europe’s World: The EU’s real problem is over-promising and under-delivering, by Dennis Kredler
• Debating Europe: Should everyone be considered organ donors unless they ‘opt-out’?
  

IMAGE CREDIT: zhudifeng/Bigstock

The post The tax shortfall of the robots appeared first on Europe’s World.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/da74c84a-19e6-11e7-a2ff-bc764e093073_1.33_thumb_169_1491386809_1491386809_129_97shar_c1.jpg

Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, visits Greece on 5 April 2017.

Download this video here.

Plenary sessions : Uniform rules on the information given in investor prospectuses were approved by Parliament on Wednesday. They aim to protect investors, create a more efficient single capital market and ease small firms’ access to finance.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Uniform rules on the information given in investor prospectuses were approved by Parliament on Wednesday. They aim to protect investors, create a more efficient single capital market and ease small firms’ access to finance.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Stricter rules to ensure that medical devices such as breast or hip implants are traceable and comply with EU patient safety requirements were backed by MEPs on Wednesday. MEPs also approved laws to tighten up information and ethical requirements for diagnostic medical devices, e.g. for pregnancy or DNA testing.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Stricter rules to ensure that medical devices such as breast or hip implants are traceable and comply with EU patient safety requirements were backed by MEPs on Wednesday. MEPs also approved laws to tighten up information and ethical requirements for diagnostic medical devices, e.g. for pregnancy or DNA testing.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP