Agenda
Tax avoidance and AI in focus This WEEK
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Planned new rules are aimed at providing more transparency on what, and where, taxes are being paid, and making the issue of legal tax evasion more visible (Photo: Matthew Tempest)
By Eszter Zalan
On Tuesday (1 June), negotiators from the three EU institutions will try to agree on new rules requiring multinational companies to disclose the amount of tax they pay, their profits, and the number of employees they have in each EU country.
The so-called country-by-country reporting rules are aimed at providing more transparency on what - and where - taxes are being paid, and making the issue of legal tax avoidance more visible.
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Ultimately the goal is to get companies to pay taxes in the country where they carry out their activities.
MEPs from the civil liberties committee on Thursday (3 June) will adopt a reporting assessing the EU Commission's first annual rule of law report published last September.
The commission is already in progress on drawing up a new report for this year's assessment.
On Monday (31 May), the parliament's subcommittee and security and defence will hear from commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič on how much the EU is prepared against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
On Monday, the committee will also meet with commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager to talk about cooperation between the civil, defence and space industries.
On Wednesday (2 June), the parliament's special committee on artificial intelligence and the internal market committee will discuss the commissions AI proposals with Vestager.
The parliament is also gearing up for its first plenary in Strasbourg, in June, since the start of the pandemic last year.
MEPs will vote there on Covid-19 travel certificates, the rule-of-law in the EU, on waiving the patent for Covid-19 vaccines, and on the Czech prime minister's conflict of interest.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will meet with several prime ministers next week, after the majority of member states have ratified the legislation needed to start the Covid-19 recovery fund.
On Tuesday, the commission chief will meet with Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven and on Wednesday evening she will receive Dutch PM Mark Rutte.
On Thursday morning, von der Leyen will meet with Lithuanian premier Ingrida Šimonytė.
Friday she will meet Slovenian president Borut Pahor, whose country will take over the EU's rotating presidency in July.
On Thursday (3 June), a new Eurobarometer survey will be released, on what Europeans think about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on citizens' personal lives and financial situation, as well as on the EU's response.
