Economy & Jobs Archives

It is necessary to reform the European Union’s flawed macroeconomic architecture as the post-pandemic world demands a new fiscal rulebook to boost our economies, argues Margarida Marques.

A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the OECD said on Thursday (1 July), but some EU states refused to sign up.

The EU has clearly fallen short in communicating its upcoming carbon border levy abroad, including on how it intends to use the revenues raised by it. Fortunately, it still has time to fix these shortcomings, write Anne Gläser and Oldag Caspar.

The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday (30 June) its long-term vision for the EU's rural areas, proposing a rural pact and a rural action plan aimed at making those regions stronger, connected, and prosperous.

The European Commission proposed caps on interest rates for consumer credit agreements and a ban on bundling practices as part of tougher consumer credit rules following the surge in online shopping during COVID-19 lockdowns and the rise of digital lenders.

The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, on Wednesday (29 June) called for initiatives to create a capital markets union for sustainable finance.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) traditionally form the backbone of Europe's largest economy, yet they are still lagging behind in terms of digitalisation compared to the international competition, according to a recent OECD study. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The European Commission is considering a wide range of measures to bring the EU's financial sector into line with its climate goals, according to a draft strategy paper to be published next Tuesday (6 July).

The European Commission’s contracts with PWC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG, known as the ‘Big Four’, continued to increase last year surpassing €156 million, partly due to their rising billing as part of the reform support programme, according to estimates made by EURACTIV.com.

The European Union on Monday (28 June) handed out the first cash from its huge COVID-19 recovery fund, in the form of grants to create jobs and support businesses in economies ravaged by the pandemic.

Portuguese Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira has said that the European Union's single market is still an "incomplete construction" with "barriers to be eliminated" but that steps to make it function better should be a foundation of the post-pandemic economic recovery.

Britain could face gaps on supermarket shelves this summer because of a shortage of more than 100,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, caused by a combination of fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, industry leaders have warned.

Nearly 140 countries will haggle over key details of a global corporate tax plan this week, with some concerned about giving up too much and others eager to ensure tech giants pay their fair share.

The Covid–19 pandemic has created a “pressure cooker” that has accelerated the process of changes at work and challenged concepts of social protection, EU officials and stakeholders said at a recent event hosted by EURACTIV.

Critics are warning of significant delays in the EU's cohesion policy spending following the adoption of the bloc's long-term regional support plan, while stakeholders say more time is needed at the local level to devise spending strategies for recovery aid …

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries had experienced transformations in their labour and jobs markets as a consequence of technological progress, climate change, globalisation, and shifts in demography.

Germany's Angela Merkel headed Thursday (24 June) into what is expected to be her last EU summit, with admiration from her fellow leaders after 16 years in power tempered by a sober sizing-up of her achievements.

The European Parliament adopted the EU's long-term budget regional support plan at a plenary on Wednesday (23 June). Some EU lawmakers, however, were disappointed at the lack of support for cross-border projects and the lack of ability to monitor spending.

Tensions are mounting in France over crossovers between the country's €100 billion plan to recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic and the European Union's cohesion policy, with regions complaining they have not been sufficiently consulted.