European Union

The decision on the top jobs shed light on key developments in the EU: the changing of the centre-right guard, the failure of the spitzen-system, Germany's confidence, Macron's political success, and the illiberal problem.

What is the monetary value of being able to breathe in Beijing or New Delhi without discomfort? Beyond the simple numerical challenges, cost-benefit analysis has an inherent ethical blind spot, writes Kevin Noone.

In the new EU legislative mandate, industry and policymakers need to work together to ensure innovative solutions can be implemented to reach a more circular economy, writes Fleming Voetmann.

Polish government punishing judges and prosecutors who stand in its way with disciplinary action and smear campaigns, Amnesty International has said.

Members of the European Parliament elected Italian Socialist David Sassoli to chair the chamber amid rising criticism over the EU leaders attempt to influence their choice.

The European Commission recognises the importance of work-life balance. It is argued that a positive work-life balance contributes to a more inclusive labour market, reducing the gender employment gap and raising individuals’ quality of life.

Written by Ioannis Zachariadis,

© Julien Eichinger / Fotolia

The substantial reduction in trade costs and the rapid technological advances characterising the global economy over the past three decades have allowed multinational enterprises (MNEs) to increasingly break up their supply chains and spread them across different countries. The principal implication of this change relates to the concept of value added and the way it is created and captured across MNE-controlled global value chains (GVCs). The dynamic nature of transfers within MNEs, the increasing role of services and intangible assets in manufacturing, and most critically the unfolding digital revolution have all intensified the mobility of value-generating factors within GVCs, and highlighted the difficulty of defining the exact location where value is generated.

These developments have significant policy implications. One critical area is that of tax policy, where the challenges posed by the new economic landscape are numerous and multifaceted. On the one hand, governments seek to encourage trade and investment by MNEs by removing tax and regulatory barriers they face. Some governments go even further by resorting to harmful tax competition that drives corporate income taxes to the bottom. At the same time, many MNEs continue to employ enhanced tax arbitrage to minimise their tax obligations across jurisdictions; furthermore, business models are increasingly becoming borderless and highly mobile, and therefore difficult to tax. In view of these challenges, consensus is gradually emerging that tax systems need improved alignment to ensure that profits are taxed where the economic activities generating them are performed and where value is created. Yet, allocating jurisdiction to tax business profits in the context of MNE-controlled GVCs remains a highly complex process.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Multinational enterprises, value creation and taxation: Key issues and policy developments‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Some 40 died following an attack at a Libyan prison, where people hoping to reach Europe are locked up. The EU commission wants an investigation but remains silent on how it trains Libyans to return rescued migrants to the country.

Last week, the UK became the first major industrialised country to pass a law to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Now London is publishing a strategy for redirecting global financial investments into climate-friendly projects. The idea of bankers investing in the environment should sound less paradoxical in the future. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Ursula von der Leyen immediately visited the European Parliament on Wednesday in order to gather support for her nomination to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as EU Commission president. The Greens will now be key for her to secure the job.

Kira Peter-Hansen discusses her introduction and first weeks in the European Parliament as well as her hopes and expectations for the 5 years to come.

The integration of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights into the EU treaties was controversial. Yet relatively few Europeans are aware that the Charter even exists, ten years after it became legally binding.

After five summit days and hundreds of hours of phone calls, meetings and backroom chats, the EU conclave agreed on its new leadership. But the ‘white smoke’ that emerged from the Council building preludes storm clouds for the nominees and the European demos.

Former German Justice Minister Katarina Barley told EURACTIV in Strasbourg that she wants to vote against Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council's proposed candidate for the European Commission presidency. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The European Commission registered an official petition on Wednesday (7 July) that calls on the EU executive to set up a minimum carbon price, “discourage the consumption of fossil fuels” and keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees.

Following Kazakhstan's presidential elections on June 9th, EURACTIV convened a high level panel of EU and Kazakh dignitaries to discuss how the new President will steer the country's political agenda

The United Kingdom’s trade minister has dismissed as “naïve and unrealistic" the prospect of the country being able to use World Trade Organisation rules to continue trading with the EU after Brexit, in a rebuke to the plans of Boris Johnson, the likely next prime minister.

One day after being nominated as the new European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen visited the European Parliament on Wednesday in order to gather support from the political groups in order to get elected. It was her own political group, the European People's Party, that invited her. Talks with other political groups were also expected but no concrete schedule revealed.

The 63-year-old centre-left Italian MEP was elected president of the European Parliament, with 345 votes. A former journalist, Sassoli has experience as a vice-president of the parliament, but is little known.

The European Parliament elected Socialist David-Maria Sassoli as its new president and picked its extended leadership on Wednesday (3 July), after EU leaders trashed out a surprise package deal for the EU top jobs during a marathon summit the previous...