Plenary focus - June

The Council failed to agree to any new rules against tax avoidance in May. The Parliament should now send a strong signal for tax justice and against tax dumping in the EU. However, the large political groups are not ready to walk the talk and instead they propose a lukewarm compromise. Their proposed rules against profit shifting via fictive interest costs are, in part, weaker than the Commission’s proposal or the US’ rules. And, as the Netherlands and others refuse common defence safeguards, we are still failing to deal with the very harmful patent boxes and money flowing from the EU into tax havens.

On a daily basis, we are exposed to endocrine disruptors, which may cause breast cancer, testicular cancer, fertility problems and other diseases. The European Commission has a moral and a legal obligation to ban endocrine disruptors, but it refuses to act. Public health is willingly being put at risk to protect short-term economic interests. The Commission’s negligence in this case is a scandal. For now, the Commission has narrowly escaped a motion of censure, but no further delays and failures to act will be accepted.