The European Commission is currently developing plans to tax the digital economy. According to the Commission, large digital multinationals, colloquially referred to as GAFA, only pay 10.1 % in taxes on average, compared to an EU-average tax rate of 23.2 % for traditional companies. As a result, Member States lose billions in tax revenues each year. The European Parliament calculated that due to tax optimisation, Facebook and Google saved 5.4 billion EUR in taxes from 2013 to 2015 in the EU.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and its research institute ETUI presented the annual report “Benchmarking Working Europe 2018” at an event hosted by AK EUROPA and the Brussels Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB). The report shows that in spite of the slight recovery of European economic and working world, even in the tenth year after the economic and financial crisis it is still not standing on firm ground.

Launch of the ETUI/ETUC Benchmarking Working Europe 2018 report

On Wednesday, 7 March 2018, the European Commission presented its Country Reports within the scope of the European Semester. The economic and social situation of individual Member States is assessed on the basis of these Country Reports in order to derive from them subsequently country-specific recommendations. New this year is the further enrichment of social aspects, as the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights have become an extended topic in the Country Reports.

Last week, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament has voted in favour of introducing uniform regulations for the taxation of multinational companies. However, as it is usual in case of tax issues, the final decision lies with the finance ministers.

The negotiations on reorganising the European energy market have entered the home straight. With the Directive and the Regulation on the internal electricity market, the ITRE Committee of the European Parliament, which is in charge of energy, adopted its final reports on 21 February 2018. These reports contain positive approaches to take up the fight against energy poverty in Europe.

The European economy is now on a quite robust growth path, with unemployment decreasing. With the improvement of the economic scenario, the policy-mix will need to be normalized. But, this normalization must be gradual and iAGS recommends the pursuit of ECB's unconventional monetary policies. The euro area has moved into a large trade surplus, which may not be sustainable. The imbalance is clearly concentrated in surplus countries. Nominal convergence remains an important issue that should be addressed by appropriate policies, beginning with surplus countries.