Last Saturday the ministers of Finance of the G20 council agreed in Moscow to tackle global tax evasion by adopting a 15-point OECD Action Plan, which supposedly will give governments the domestic and international arms they need to combat tax Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). The responsible European Commissioner for tax issues Algirdas Šemeta […]Search Results for: multinationals
Is it true that the G20 wants to arrest tax evasion of multinationals?
July 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday the ministers of Finance of the G20 council agreed in Moscow to tackle global tax evasion by adopting a 15-point OECD Action Plan, which supposedly will give governments the domestic and international arms they need to combat tax Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). The responsible European Commissioner for tax issues Algirdas Šemeta […]Industrial products: Lifting the last impediments in the EU single market
February 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Still twelve years after the launch of the great ‘Single internal Market‘ project, which transformed the European Union into really a seamless market, and some industrial sectors continue being plagued by bureaucratic and technical impediments to trade. Understandably, the sectors and products in question are not of a simple nature. They comprise highly sophisticated machinery […]Rising political extremism in Europe escapes control
January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Everybody knew it but ‘The Independent on Sunday’ said it this weekend; Nigel Farage’s UKIP political formation is the first choice of the Brits. The newspaper published a poll giving 27% to UKIP, 26% to Labour and 25% to Conservatives. Not to forget that last year this party got almost one-quarter of the English vote […]The financial sector cripples Eurozone growth prospects
January 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
According to a European Central Bank Press release published on 3 January 2014, Eurozone banks further reduced their overall outstanding balance of loans to the private sector during November 2013. Given that industrial multinationals and big services firms do not rely on bank loans for their financing, it’s mainly the SMEs that have been deprived […]Forget about growth without a level playing field for all SMEs
November 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Less than 24 hours after a widely advertised Press conference held by Barroso, Rehn and Andor, where all of them were talking about “strengthening the recovery”, recovery in Eurozone was reported as fading away, being one decimal point away from total freezing that is zero, or numerical death. It is as if reality wanted to […]The European Sting @ Mobile World Congress 2014, Creating What’s Next for the World. Can EU Policy follow?
March 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was the end of February and the time for the world’s biggest annual mobile technology event had come. The rendez-vous was given at the same place as last year; at the beautiful capital of Catalunya, Barcelona, that is also the Mobile World Capital. The European Sting was media sponsor of the world’s most magnificent […]Aidex: the Global Humanitarian and Development Aid Event
December 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
On 13 – 14 November the biggest annual global Humanitarian and Development Aid event of Europe took place in Brussels and the European Sting, as the European media that follows closely the most important events at the Old Continent, was official media sponsor. During those two days at Brussels Expo exhibitors from United Nations High […]EU leaders let tax-evaders untouched
May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In tomorrows’ European Summit the 27 leaders of the European Union will have as main item in their agenda the fight against tax evasion and fraud. Reportedly without concrete results. According to the President of the Council, Herman Van Rompuy, this affair costs to member state budgets around €1 trillion every year. If only a […]Europe rethinking its severe austerity policies
June 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the past few weeks there is a noticeable change of climate in Brussels towards a more relaxed attitude over economic policies. On Monday the President of Eurogroup and minister for Finance of Holland, Jeroen Dijsselbloem asked in a letter his 16 colleagues in view of their Luxembourg meeting, to reduce the sovereign debt […]The US bugged Europe: Is this news?
July 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It took a new wave of publications by major European media (Der Spiegel, Guardian) about the bugging of EU’s and EU member states’ offices in the US by the American secret services, to wake up the European Union leaders. Yesterday all three European Union presidents and at least two Commission vice presidents issued statements asking […]EU countries invested €5 trillion abroad
January 30, 2013 by 1 Comment
Stocks of European Union direct investments to the rest of the world amounted to €5 trillion at the end of 2011, marking an increase of 50% during the period of 2008-2011, according to Eurostat, the statistical service of the EU. In 2011 however, the yearly inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) into the 27 EU […]Novartis and Johnson & Johnson to deprive Europeans of their right to Health
February 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was the last day of January that the European Commission decided to send a formal complaint against two pharmaceutical giants, Johnson and Johnson and Novartis, over an illegal secret deal that made European cancer patients suffer while it brought huge profits to the American and Swiss multinational accordingly. After the meticulous research of DG […]Commissioner sings “Volar-e” but the European driver no “Cantar-e”
March 7, 2013 by 2 Comments
It was the last day of February when the European Commission decided to organize a pompous event to test the “amazing” performance of a new electric race car in the Formula 1 Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Its name is Volar-e and I am sure Antonio Tajani, the Commissioner responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship that […]Pharmaceuticals conceal drug side effects with the EU’s Court blessing
May 8, 2013 by 1 Comment
When was the last time you heard about a famous drug that had to be withdrawn from the market after it had cost hundreds or thousands of lives to the patients who had been prescribed with? Did you think it was due to an accident or human error during production? How would you feel if you found […]How Greece was destroyed
November 24, 2012 by 1 Comment
Right from the beginning, the scenario of the Greek financial tragedy was criticised as fake. Towards the end of 2009, the newly elected government of George Papandreou, son and grandson of prime ministers, found out that his PASOK socialist party had won the election on populist promises that could not be fulfilled. Papandreou […]Higher education becoming again a privilege of the wealthy?
December 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Over the past few years higher education tuition fees have skyrocketed all over the European Union. Last year thousands of British university students took it to the streets of London and the other major cities protesting against the planned increases of tuition fees. Incidentally, this really huge protest movement gave Scotland Yard the opportunity to […]Why Microsoft is a regular to Almunia’s
December 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In the years of globalisation, free movements of capital, goods and to a lesser degree of labour, have raised exponentially citizen’s wellbeing in our western economic volume and not only. This achievement has to be totally credited, to the opening of national markets to international competition. At the same time though globalisation has created new opportunities […]Is there a drug for every disease?
December 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Pharmaceutical firms in Europe have an awkward relation with their customers. The truth is that their selling prices and product licencing are directly or indirectly controlled by the buyers, that is governments, or government control health insurance schemes, offering almost free health services to citizens. As everybody knows governments are not only able to influence […]It ain’t over until Google says it’s over
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The deadline EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia set to Google to answer the Commission’s investigation expired yesterday and, since no answer had been filled, people in the DG Competition decided to throw a party. They thought that these would be the easiest €4 billion the European Commission had ever made. Mr. Almunia even rushed to brag […]
