European Union

Russia has admitted to testing an anti-satellite missile by shooting down one of its own disused satellites. The resulting cloud of at least 1,500 pieces of debris forced the crew of the ISS space station to seek shelter in their spacecraft. Nasa and the Esa have criticised Russia for creating additional space debris, but commentators focus on the message behind the move.

In Romania, a new coalition government is forming consisting of the national-liberal PNL party of caretaker prime minister Florin Cîțu and the social-democratic PSD, whose no-confidence motion toppled Cîțu in October. The Hungarian party UDMR is to be a third partner in the coalition. The office of prime minister is to rotate between the parties. Can this alliance between long-standing enemies work?

Winter is coming and we will soon hear more alarming stories about smog. Air pollution continues to have a significant impact on the health of European citizens, particularly in urban areas.

As homeowners across Europe worry about the fate of their ageing gas boilers, some have pinned their hopes on switching them to hydrogen – but this may not be the way forward, a new study suggests.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

SpaceNet ,Telecom Deutschland,Commissioner of the Garda Síochána
Approximation of laws
Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona reiterates that the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data relating to electronic communications is permitted only in the event of a serious threat to national security

MEPs are calling for better legal labour migration channels to reduce irregular arrivals and meet the needs of the economy.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs are calling for better legal labour migration channels to reduce irregular arrivals and meet the needs of the economy.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Written by Marcin Szczepański.

On 8 October 2021, the OECD announced that, following years of intense negotiations, 136 countries had finally reached an agreement on how to tackle the tax policy challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. A growing realisation that these challenges cannot be addressed by the existing tax system – over a century old – helped achieve the breakthrough. With this, one of the main questions pertinent to the digital economy – how to fairly tax businesses that rely on intangible assets and have no or only an insignificant physical presence in the tax jurisdictions where they operate – seems to have been answered.

The EU and other international bodies have been discussing these issues for some time. In March 2018, the EU introduced a legislative package on the fair taxation of the digital economy. It contained proposals for an interim and a long-term digital tax. However, there was no immediate political agreement in the Council. As finding a global solution at the OECD level or a coordinated EU approach was not yet feasible at the time, some Member States started designing or implementing their own digital taxes, which gave rise to trade tensions.

The two-pillar solution agreed under the auspices of the OECD will put an end to this fragmentation. Pillar One would reallocate taxation rights concerning the largest and most profitable multinationals, and Pillar Two would introduce a global minimal corporate tax rate. While the consensus has been broadly welcomed, the new rules have also sparked controversy, particularly regarding their impact on developing countries, their complexity and their resilience to possible circumvention. The agreement will be presented for endorsement during the G20 Leaders’ Summit scheduled for 30-31 October 2021 in Rome.

This Briefing updates a previous one from March 2020.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Taxing the digital economy: New developments and the way forward‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Listen to policy podcast ‘Taxing the digital economy: New developments and the way forward’ on YouTube.

For years, life in Bosnia's Breza revolved around its coal mine, but the global shift from fossil fuels to renewables threatens the industry that was once the pride of communist Yugoslavia.

Certification of energy carriers, especially hydrogen, is crucial to their marketing and for EU states to prove that they have achieved their climate goals. Now the Commission is pushing for an EU database to harmonise certification.

With its low carbon strategy, the French government aims to green agriculture through the development of carbon sequestration in soils. French farmers salute the strategy but call for stronger aids for the transition to be financially sustainable.

Austria’s energy and climate minister Leonore Gewessler told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview that her country was ready to go to court if the EU decides to include nuclear power into the bloc's taxonomy on sustainable finance.

In a shift away from European Central Bank orthodoxy, a senior bank executive  has argued that even though the ECB’s monetary policy led to a decrease in labour income inequality, its asset purchase programs would lead to wealth inequality.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about caretaker chancellor Angela Merkel calling Belarus strongman Lukashenko for the second time this week, Romania's interim energy minister blaming Russia for the natural gas crisis, and so much more.

The European Commission has proposed a progressive roll-out of the regulation on in vitro diagnostic medical devices in a bid to fight shortcomings. However, MEPs criticised the lack of notified bodies to assess their conformity and the delays of more than a decade in their application.