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Public financing of enterprises, which has been on the rise globally, can have a distortive effect on competitive markets. In response to this trend, in May 2021 the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation to tackle foreign subsidies with a distortive effect on the EU single market. It would enable the Commission to investigate subsidies granted by non-EU public authorities to companies operating on the single market, and to apply countervailing measures, should these subsidies ...

On 11 March, Europe honours all those who have lost their lives or loved ones to terror. The European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism was inaugurated after the 2004 Madrid bombings. Protection of victims of terrorism is an essential part of the EU's efforts to address all dimensions of the terrorist threat. In response to the wave of attacks that has hit Europe in recent years, rules and sanctions related to terrorist activities have been strengthened. Ongoing action at EU level, meanwhile ...

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which showed the need for more sophisticated and demanding capital requirements for banks, new regulations were agreed at international level – known as the Basel III Agreements. In the EU, they were implemented essentially by amending the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) and adopting the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). On 27 October 2021, the Commission tabled two interconnected proposals to amend the CRR and the CRD, respectively. The objective ...

This document presents some features of the National Productivity Boards (originally proposed as Competitiveness Boards), introduced in the context of the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union. It also provides some information on the status of implementation of National Productivity Boards in the Euro area Member States. This is an update of a previous version published in 2018.

The proposal to revise the market stability reserve (MSR) for the EU emissions trading system (ETS) consists of prolonging its current parameters. Under the current rules, the intake rate of allowances to the MSR and the minimum allowances placed in the reserve have been doubled until the end of 2023, to allow for a quick removal of surplus EU ETS allowances. The proposal is aimed at maintaining the current doubled intake rate (24 %) and minimum number of allowances placed in the reserve (200 million ...

This activity report summarises and explains the work undertaken by the European Parliament in the fields of impact assessment and European added value during the calendar year 2022. It details the support given by the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value within the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) to assist parliamentary committees in their oversight and scrutiny of the executive in the fields of ex-ante impact assessment, European added value, and ex-post evaluation ...

This study aims at quantifying and comparing tax compliance costs burdening private businesses in the European Union by reviewing the available empirical literature and data with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. Data as well as methodological challenges are discussed and used to identify best-practice tax systems in Europe. We highlight differences in compliance costs met by firms of differing sizes, engaging or not in cross-border trade and for different tax types.

Democratic control and legitimacy in the evolving EU economic governance frameworkThe European Semester (ES) is a centrepiece of the EU’s evolving economic governance architecture and its democratic legitimacy and accountability has been contested in pre- and post-pandemic times. This paper introduces two perspectives – a democratic and a technocratic perspective – to evaluate the accountability of the ES, based on a survey of existing literature. Whereas there is broad agreement that the ES has ...

As part of the 'Fit for 55' package, the European Commission presented a legislative proposal to review the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The aim of the review is to align the EU ETS Directive with the EU target set out in the European Climate Law to reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 55 % by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. To this end, the amount of emission allowances would be reduced, fewer allowances would be allocated for free, and the ETS would be extended to maritime transport ...

On 11 November 2020, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a regulation on serious cross-border threats to health. In the light of lessons learned from the coronavirus crisis, it aimed to strengthen the EU's health security by revising Decision 1082/2013/EU (the 'Cross-Border Health Threats Decision'). The proposal was presented in a package that also included proposals to strengthen the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) ...