Close ranks to fight the crisis

“The crisis makes the difference”: with his traditional aplomb the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, clarified the reasons underlying the need for greater cooperation in matters previously considered within national competence. “What has happened in recent years is marked by major transformations that we are called to address today. Effective action across borders” in both sectors, “is essential to foster competitiveness, growth and employment”. The cornerstones. This Council was part of a detailed agenda drawn up by Van Rompuy to compel the leaders of the member countries to discuss measures to tackle the crisis in strategic areas such as fiscal policy, economic governance, industry, digital agenda, defence, external relations and trade policies. In late June, the Council will address the issue of actions for growth and employment (economic and banking union will also be discussed), while in July EU ministers will gather in Berlin to discuss the question of youth employment. In their meeting in Brussels, EU presidents and prime ministers convened that “it remains crucial to supply affordable and sustainable energy to our economies”.This is why the European Council “agreed on a series of guidelines in four fields: urgent completion of a fully functioning and interconnected internal energy market, facilitation of the required investment in energy, diversification of Europe’s supplies and enhanced energy efficiency”, state the Council conclusions. The document (available in EU official languages on the website www.consilium.europa.eu) reads: “Tax fraud and tax evasion limit countries’ capacity to raise revenue and carry out their economic policies”.Van Rompuy pointed out that every year EU member states lose around one trillion euro because of tax evasion and tax avoidance, as much as the cost of healthcare in all of Europe and slightly more than the multiannual budget of the European Union. It’s a question of fairness (“if everyone paid what they should we would all pay less taxes”) to recover precious funds for state budgets.”Renewed thrust”. In his remarks following the Council Van Rompuy said: “This meeting was brief – as brief as it was effective”.”European countries showed renewed thrust in the fight on tax evasion and fiscal fraud – said the Belgian politician –. And just to be perfectly clear: we’re not talking about tax harmonisation”, i.e., harmonising fiscal policies across member States, an item that was not on the agenda and which no country intends to address. Moreover, at the end of the summit held at the Justus Lipsius building, EU leaders put on paper a set of commitments for “a standard of automatic sharing of information” on bank deposits (winning over the opposition of Austria and Luxembourg), the fight on tax havens, the quest for “virtuous” agreements not yet subjected to European regulations (Switzerland, San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco), countering counter VAT fraud, the thorny issue of the taxation of businesses at cross-national level. Investments, networks, renewable resources… At the end of the Council meeting EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso commented on the energy situation: “On energy I presented at the beginning of the meeting different scenarios. The reality is that the global energy landscape is changing very quickly and not in Europe’s favour”.The head of the EU Executive commented on the “significant” outcomes of the summit, that “need to be implemented”, namely: to complete the single energy market, “which would bring down prices and could save Europeans billions on gas and electricity bill”; strong investments, especially on the part of the private sector in modern infrastructure and also in R&D (the EU allocates 5 billion euros, but at least 20 are needed); to boost energy efficiency and finally “diversifying our energy sources – making sure no country relies on a single supplier or supply route”; exploiting Europe’s energy potential; extending energy mix – “also develop safe and sustainable ways to tap other resources” this includes shale gas and biomasses, and finally “strengthening consumers’ rights”.