14 European Union Member States Will Miss 2020 Targets
14 European Union Member States Will Miss 2020 Targets.
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14 European Union Member States Will Miss 2020 Targets - Video
MILAN: Deep divisions within the European Union over the rules governing the euro will be aired once more at an emergency jobs summit here on Wednesday.
Italy's energetic young prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has billed the meeting, the latest in a long series of similar gatherings, as an opportunity to begin a debate on how to reshape the bloc's policies towards measures to bolster demand and growth, although the official agenda is supposed to be all about youth unemployment.
The initiative by an Italian government which has pledged to shake up its own labour market, is the latest salvo in an intensifying debate over the direction of the EU, the world's largest trading bloc, at a time when its biggest economies are sliding back towards recession.
Italy, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, called the summit in response to a shock deterioration of the economic outlook in the eurozone's major economies over the summer.
The gloom was heightened on Tuesday with new data showing that German industrial output slumped in August.
The slowdown has been particularly severe in Italy, which is back in recession for the third time in seven years and beset by deflation.
France and Germany are scarcely doing better and some economists worry that the eurozone as a whole is heading for a Japan-style "lost decade" of prolonged negative or zero growth.
Emergency jobs summits have been a regular fixture on the EU calendar for the best part of two decades but the jury remains out on how much impact they have had.
"The tangible results of the jobs summits are small," said Christian Schultz, an economist at private German bank Berenberg.
"Labour market policy remains a domain of member states. The European level can merely provide a little financial support or facilitate the exchange of best practices.
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European Union puts divisions on display at latest jobs summit
European Union officials contend that a Luxembourg ruling from 2003 could represent an improper tax shelter and thus require Amazon to pay back taxes.
Declan McCullagh/CNET
Amazon is under investigation over a deal with the Luxembourg government that has allegedly allowed to company to pay less in taxes to other European countries.
The European Union's European Commission on Tuesday launched an "in-depth investigation" into Amazon and Luxembourg over a "tax ruling" from 2003.
"It is well known that some multinationals are using tax planning strategies...to reduce their global tax burden, eroding tax bases in EU Member States," the European Commission wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "We are looking at whether selective tax advantages have been granted to a particular company."
The investigation is nearly identical to the one impacting Apple in Ireland. In that case, the European Union is investigating whether a special deal between Apple and Ireland's government allows the company to sidestep much of its tax liability. The country's corporate tax rate is 12.5 percent, but Apple pays less than 2 percent in taxes in Ireland. If the European Union decides that this is improper, then Apple could be forced to pay billions of euros in unpaid taxes stretching back 10 years.
A similar scenario could play out with Amazon, if the European Union finds that the agreement between Luxembourg and the e-commerce giant allows the company to safeguard profits and improperly limit tax liability.
"The ruling we are looking at concerns Amazon's subsidiary in Luxembourg, which records most of the group's European profits," the Commission wrote. "This company pays a royalty to another entity [that is] based in Luxembourg but not subject to corporate taxation in Luxembourg. Today we observe that through this mechanism most European profits of Amazon are recorded in Luxembourg but are not taxed there."
The Commission added that the royalty reducing Amazon's tax liability "might not be in line with market conditions" and that "Luxembourg's tax authorities agreed to limit the proportion of Amazon's turnover that is being taxed in Luxembourg whatever the profit that Amazon is making."
If it does find that the deal is improper, the company could face a significant bills for back taxes.
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Amazon becomes latest EU target in tax probe
File photo of European Union's incoming boss Jean-Claude Juncker. (Agence France-Presse)
Lawmakers in Brussels have raised doubts over key members of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm for the next five years, including the British, Spanish, Hungarian and Slovenian nominees.
Juncker was in talks with senior parliamentary figures to cut a deal which could see him change some portfolios, or even drop one or more members, in order to push the team by the deadline of later this month, officials said.
His spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said he was "happy" that "certain obstacles" were out of the way but would not comment on whether Juncker was prepared to make any compromises.
"The relevant committees are meeting tonight to discuss their assessment, and Mr. Juncker will then meet with the European Parliament leaders to discuss the overall assessment," she said.
The row stems from a power struggle between an increasingly assertive parliament and the European Commission, as well as from a split between conservatives and socialists in parliament itself.
The European Parliament can ask for European Commission candidates to be changed or be assigned new portfolios, as it did in 2004 and 2009.
It will also vote to approve or throw out the full Juncker team line-up on October 22.
On Tuesday, Britain's candidate Jonathan Hill faced further questions over his suitability for the role of financial services commissioner after being summoned for an unprecedented second hearing by parliament's ecomomics committee.
"I've had to overcome some suspicions about being a Brit, especially about being a Brit in this portfolio,' he said, referring to doubts about whether he would be biased towards Britain's huge financial services industry.
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EU's Jean-Claude Juncker Faces Pressure to Reshuffle Team
VERA JOUROVA, justice, consumers and gender equality European Union commissioner-designate, has told the EU that the current Safe Harbour agreement with the US is hanging in the balance.
Jourova said that a suspension of the arrangement is a distinct possibility, according to a report on Reuters that has access to her written answers.
"Suspension is certainly an option on the table for me," she said. "But we are not yet there."
The Safe Harbour arrangement has been around since the start of this century and is designed to provide securities for people whose data may be moving between territories.
This is OK locally, but since PRISM and all that Europeans have struggled to trust the US, its companies, its security policies and its government. The EU has asked the US to keep its national security data requests to a fair and not too intrusive minimum.
"Allow me to give this another push and to continue working in a constructive spirit with the US building on the progress made so far, while insisting that a higher level of ambition is shown and must materialise in practice," added Jourova in her answers.
According to a separate report on the Euractiv news site, Jourova is not the only person to be making such noises.
The report says that the commissioner-designate for the Digital Internal Market, Andrus Ansip, who has wide support in the European Parliament, wants tighter controls on data sharing, and a lot more trust in the US.
"As a liberal, I believe in personal rights. We must protect everyone's privacy. Data protection will be an important cornerstone of the Digital Internal Market. The citizens must have trust in this project," he said.
"Safe Harbour is not secure. The agreement has yet to live up to its name. If the US government does not make a clear statement, we must consider suspending the agreement."
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European Union may halt the US Safe Harbour deal