Economic recovery in Europe, now in its fifth year, remains fragile and certainly not sufficient for reversing the output and job losses caused by the crisis and the responses to it.

The latest European Commission economic forecasts suggest that the conditions for an acceleration of economic activity are not yet in place, with investment and wage growth being still weak. Thus, the prospects of wage growth have now become crucial for the sustainability of economic recovery.

During the first session after the summer recess, members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) debated the Commission proposal on an EU-wide common method to calculate corporate taxation. Even though the present version is a step in the right direction, it remains short of what is needed!

The mandate of the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance und Tax Evasion (PANA) has been extended. Its remaining work on collecting information with regard to tax tricks by governments, large companies and rich individuals is due in December. However, the Committee’s first draft report, which summarises the most important results of the almost one-year-long investigations, has already been made available.

Following months of negotiations by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, on July 4, the European Parliament voted on the report on public Country-by-Country reporting at last. In doing so, the position of Parliament has been fixed – this position must now be defended in the forthcoming Trilogue negotiations with the Council.

On June 28, 2017 the Commission presented the fifth reflection paper, thereby opening the debate on the future of EU finances. This week, it is the turn of the European Parliament to deal with the issue. The majority of MEPs welcomed the discussion. The Commission also announced that it would publish the multiannual financial framework only in spring next year and not already by the end of this year in order to take into account the debates on the reflection paper and progress in the Brexit negotiations.

It is a complicated and illegitimate venture to avoid taxes legally. Hence, companies and individuals are dependent on the support of experts. So far, these law firms, banks or auditing firms are not subject to common rules. The Commission’s proposal is to change this.

Transparency – an important keystone of the Juncker Commission – aims at becoming European reality. However, in particular with respect to the taxation of companies and profits there is a huge gap between claim and reality; there is much more to be done. This week, two committees of the European Parliament voted on two significant Directive proposals. The preliminary voting results indeed seem to bring more transparency; unfortunately, however, only at a corporate level and not for everyone of us.

On May 31, the Commission presented the third of overall five reflection papers. This time focus is on deepening and completing the Economic and Monetary Union. However, there is not much, which is new: the rather technical paper makes a number of concrete suggestions, some of which are already being discussed by the European Parliament. Still, the Commission’s long-term vision until 2025 remains vague.

Taxation is currently an intensively discussed issue in the EU. The versatility of the debates ranges from gender-discriminating tax systems at an individual level up to tax evasion of large companies. Taxation systems need to change in many dimensions, most importantly, however, they have to become fairer.

With its Energy Package “Clean Energy for All Europeans”, the European Commission presented a comprehensive dossier at the end of last year, which describes the way forward to establish the planned Energy Union and to achieve the climate and energy targets. The package, which is currently intensively debated by the European Parliament, consists of no fewer than eight Directive and Regulation documents respectively.