European Union

Economists consider, based on tax havens’ statistics such as Bermuda or Ireland, that 40% of multinational companies' profits avoid taxation. The EU would thus be deprived of a fifth of its income from companies. EURACTIV.fr reports.

The Council adopted its position on the recast ACER regulation.

The European Commission said Monday that ensuring the 600 people stranded in a boat in the Mediterranean "get the care they need" was "a humanitarian imperative." Italy and Malta have each been saying over the weekend that the other country should open its ports to the boat. The commission added that legally the "situation is everything but clear" and that it does not have a mandate over the issue.

Following a difficult year that brought a new CEO at the helm, Uber is serious about listening to its drivers and policymakers, Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty told EURACTIV. Now the company aims at becoming a multimodal mobility platform, integrating bike sharing services or public transports.

Denuclearisation will be a big subject for discussion between Presidents Trump and Kim Jong-un at the June 12 summit in Singapore. But both leaders have mercurial personalities and vastly different expectations about the outcome, writes Fraser Cameron

Fish are often seen to be at the bottom of the pile when it comes to how we view animals. The general assumption is that fish are not furry and pettable, and therefore, they fall outside citizens’ scope of moral concern, write Reineke Hameleers and Philip Lymbery.

The European Commission chose the Trencin region in Slovakia as a pilot for its new initiative to support the transition away from coal in Europe’s regions. Coal company HBP wants to take advantage of the EU initiative – while keeping coal mining in the region.

With less than a year before the next European elections, EU stakeholders and MEPs expressed the need for the European Union to create more and better job in a bid to tackle EU citizens’ current rejection of EU institutions.

Last week, the third progress report on the implementation of the common set of proposals on the implementation of the Joint Declaration, signed in Warsaw in July 2016, was presented to the EU and NATO Councils. 
 
In addition to the 42 proposals adopted on 6 December 2016, 32 new actions were added on 5 December 2017 including on topics such as counter-terrorism, women, peace and security and military mobility. EDA is involved in the implementation of 30 out of these 74 actions.
 
The new progress report covers the period January-June 2018 and elaborates on the main achievements of EU-NATO cooperation – also in view of the upcoming meeting of the European Council on 28-29 June and the NATO Summit on 11-12 July – and highlights the added value of EU-NATO cooperation in different areas aimed at strengthening the security of citizens.
 
The next common progress report is foreseen in a year’s time (June 2019).

 

A 7-minute video describes the development of the capital of Kazakhstan in a remarkably short time, and its role on the international stage.

June 8th was World Oceans Day and the European Commission was quick to point out their contribution to preventing plastic pollution ending up in the ocean.

Most EU leaders found US president Donald Trump "depressing" at the G7, but one of them - Italy's Giuseppe Conte - made a new friend.

Women and girls are too often forgotten in development policy, despite being in the front-line. A mere 2% of total overseas development aid is spent on policies related to gender equality, panellists heard at the European Development Days in Brussels.

More than 175,000 people in Spain's autonomous Basque region on Sunday formed a 200km human chain calling for the right to hold a referendum on independence from Madrid. Last year's independence referendum in the Catalan region prompted a brutal crackdown by Spanish security forces and saw several of its political leaders jailed or in exile.

Italy's new interior minister Matteo Salvini threatened on Sunday to close the country's ports to a migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean carrying more than 600 people, and has asked Malta to open its doors to the vessel. Malta has refused to take the ship, Aquarius, in, saying in a statement it took the migrants onboard in international waters off Libya, in rescue operations coordinated by Italy.

Despite Brexit, the UK is still Europe's most favoured destination for foreign investment, attracting 18 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, according to the EY Attractiveness Report. France enjoyed surging project numbers (up 31 percent) and has become a direct competitor to Germany and the UK. Europe's three largest economies, Germany, France and the UK together accounted for almost 50 percent of all FDI projects.

Emails leaked to UK press revealed on Sunday that British businessman Arron Banks, who backed the 'Leave' campaign in the Brexit referendum, had more extensive contacts with Russian officials than previously claimed, meeting Russia's UK ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, three times, rather than once and shared at least one phone number for the Trump transition team with the Russians. He also refused an offer to participate in a Russian goldmine deal.

As an EU judicial mission prepares to leave Kosovo, the assessments of its decade-long mandate are mixed -- hailed by officials but criticised by the public.

France and Germany made "significant progress" towards an agreement on eurozone reforms at marathon talks in Paris this weekend, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday (10 June), but aides said there was still some work to do.

Former Finnish prime ministers Alexander Stubb and Jyrki Katainen left open the possibility on Saturday (9 June) that they would run to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the EU executive’s president next year.