Thank you very much for the invitation and opportunity to speak to you today. Again, in a time of uncertainty. Political and economic uncertainty, this time stemming directly from a referendum in the UK. And again, commentators throughout Europe contemplate the consequences of the possible next crisis. I will argue today that we should not wait for the next possible event (which may never happen) but should look at the fundamentals and continue to work on improving those. Economic outlook eurozone There is quite a...

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Two major global initiatives to fight climate change at city level are merging to create an alliance of more than 7,100 cities across the world called the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The Covenant of Mayors – an EU initiative launched in 2008 involving 6,800 cities and regions in 57 countries – and the Compact of Mayors – a global coalition of mayors and city officials launched in 2014 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – together...

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The European Central Bank (ECB) has bought €80 billion worth of public and private debt since March 2015 in order to boost growth and push interest rates down. The bond buying programme has led to the bank being criticised for overstepping its mandate, but today the German constitutional court ruled that it wasn't. ECB President Mario Draghi is expected to discuss the strategy known as quantative easing during his meeting with Parliament's economic committee today from 15.00 CET. The ECB...

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On 21 June 2016, the Council agreed on a draft directive addressing tax avoidance practices commonly used by large companies. The directive is part of a January 2016 package of Commission proposals to strengthen rules against corporate tax avoidance. The package builds on 2015 OECD recommendations to address tax base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). The directive addresses situations where corporate groups take advantage ofdisparities between national tax systems in order to reduce their overall tax liability. Corporate taxpayers may benefit from...

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