British-EU reations: EU starts legal action against UK over Northern Ireland - by Eszter Zalan

The European Parliament has urged EU states to go after alleged Syrian war criminals in Europe, 10 years after the start of the bloodiest war in its neighbourhood.

"Persons responsible for core international crimes must be duly prosecuted, including by EU member states ... [as] lack of accountability provides a breeding ground for further atrocities," the parliament said in a non-binding resolution adopted last week.

Read more at: EU starts legal action against UK over Northern Ireland

EU taxation of multinationals—bypassing the unanimity blockage – by Tommaso Faccio and Francesco Saraceno

The French car-service company Heetch recently displayed an advertising campaign on the streets of Paris (see photo), which proudly affirmed its presence in many French cities but not in Luxembourg—a clear allusion to the tax headquarters of some of its competitors. The fact that ‘paying taxes in France’ has become a commercial argument shows that the issue of corporate avoidance is rising up the public agenda in many countries.

Yet the G20 process on taxing digital firms and introducing a global minimum tax to limit tax competition, led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, failed to reach consensus in 2020, mostly because of determination by the United States to protect its digital giants. The European Commission has made clear that, were the G20 to fail to deliver a global solution by mid-2021, it will act. But the EU is stuck between a rock—the US position will likely not change with the new administration—and a hard place: its own tax havens.

Read more at: EU taxation of multinationals—bypassing the unanimity blockage – Tommaso Faccio and Francesco Saraceno

Brexit: EU and UK to 'intensify' Brexit talks

The European Commission on Friday released a statement saying the "EU and the UK have agreed to intensify discussions over the coming days."

The statement followed a meeting between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay.

The UK is set to leave the European Union on 31 October as outstanding issues remain entrenched on efforts to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

Read more: EU and UK to 'intensify' Brexit talks

Ireland Economy: Not enough migrants arriving to keep pay down-says Irish Central Bank - by David Chance

The number of people willing to move here to work is not going to hit levels seen during the last boom and will not keep wages down, economists at the Central Bank are forecasting.

The Department of Finance expects that another 50,000 jobs will be added this year, barring a hard Brexit, and predicts average wages will rise 3pc in 2019,

Read more at: Not enough migrants arriving to keep pay down - Central Bank - Independent.ie

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Big Pharma in the EU : Dutch healthcare institute "Zorginstituut Nederland" says drugs companies are effectively blackmailing officials by refusing to be transparent about their prices

The Dutch healthcare institute "Zorginstituut Nederland" said recently insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at their pricing.

The institute, which assesses the efficacy of new drugs and advises the government on whether they should be included in the basic healthcare policy, says the drugs companies are effectively blackmailing officials by refusing to be transparent about their prices.

Last years June announcement that Ireland is joining the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy might suggest renewed vigour for the drive to equip national governments with more clout in their pricing negotiations with international drug firms.

The likelihood is that better-informed health authorities will be better equipped to confront drug firms. Similarly, drug firms will be obliged to present more cogent justifications for their pricing ambitions/

 As has been proven in the US, Pharmaceutical companies. also known there as "Big Pharma, can not be left operating with little or no strict Governmental controls.

In the US this has led to a steady rise in the cost of pharmaceutical products for  consumers.

 It is more than obvious the Pharmaceutical industry must be closely monitored in two major areas: a) Their pricing structures and practices, and b) Providing far more transparency in their marketing and sales activities, specifically as it relates to the insurance and medical industry.

In Europe the initiatives of the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy certainly are a step in the right direction, but unfortunately Government support and action has been extremely slow, while the Pharmaceutical lobby in the EU Parliament, however, like it has been in the US Congress and Senate, has been vigorous and very effective.

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EU Summit: BREXIT EU LEADERS AGREE- Irish backstop should be temporary

EU summit: EU leaders agreed Irish backstop should only be temporary

Read more: 

https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/13/eu-summit-brexit-set-to-dominate-meeting-of-european-chiefs-in-brussels

Ireland - Artificial Intelligence: Ireland committed to digitisation of EU economy, says minister

Ireland’s commitment to the digitisation of the EU economy is to be raised during a high-level meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Minister for Trade Pat Breen will also discuss issues relating to EU competitiveness, including the 25th anniversary of the single market and EU industrial policy when he meets European commissioner for digital economy and society, Mariya Gabriel later.

The Clare TD said: “Digitisation is increasing on a vast scale and Ireland continues to be regarded as one of the EU’s digital front runners.

“We fully support the overall DSM (digital single market) agenda and the Government sees obvious synergies between digital policy initiatives at EU level and national policy.

“In particular, we want to underline the benefits to small and medium enterprises that the DSM will bring in terms of market access and opportunities for growth.

“In helping to progress the DSM, Ireland will continue to strive for outcomes which are pro-trade, pro-enterprise and pro-innovation.”

The DSM is one in which the free movement of people, services and capital is ensured, and where the individuals and businesses can seamlessly access and exercise online activities under conditions of fair competition, and a high level of consumer and personal data protection, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence.

The strategy was endorsed by the European Council in June 2015.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence will be the central theme when Europe’s nine digital front runner countries meet in Dublin in May.

Mr Breen added: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an exciting development that is shaping a new reality for Irish businesses and creating significant new opportunities for innovation across all industries.

“The meeting in May will be an opportunity for both the international AI dimension and the Irish AI ecosystem to be showcased.”

 

Read more:Ireland committed to digitisation of EU economy, says minister - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk  

Britain: Jeremy Corbyn backs permanent customs union after Brexit

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the UK being in a permanent customs union with the EU in a speech setting out his approach to Brexit.

He said this would avoid the need for a "hard border" in Northern Ireland and ensure free-flowing trade for business.

The policy shift could lead to Labour siding with Tory rebels to defeat Theresa May on her Brexit strategy.

The Tories said it was "a cynical attempt" to frustrate Brexit "and play politics with our country's future".

Mr Corbyn insisted in an interview with BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg that his speech was a "firming up" of Labour's existing policy and that he did not want the UK to follow the Norway model, ending up bound by EU rules but having very little say in them.

Read More: Jeremy Corbyn backs permanent customs union after Brexit - BBC News

Brexit: Pro-European Conservative and Labour MPs join forces over Brexit - by Denis Staunton

Pro-European Conservative and Labour MPs have joined forces behind an amendment that would oblige Britain to stay in a customs union with the European Union after Brexit. 

The group, which includes former Conservative ministers Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan as well as Labour’s Chuka Umunna, claimed on Friday that they had enough support to defeat the government, which is committed to leaving the customs union and the single market.

“There is no majority in the House of Commons for us not to participate in the customs union, that is absolutely clear,” Mr Umunna said.

“If they are not going to change their position they are going to lose votes in the House of Commons, it’s as straightforward as that.”

The move comes ahead of a speech on Monday by Jeremy Corbyn, who is expected to announce that Labour now supports remaining in a customs union after Brexit. Mr Corbyn said this week that remaining in a customs union could be the only way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

Read more: Pro-European Conservative and Labour MPs join forces over Brexit

Brexit Britain and EU fail to strike Brexit talks deal

he UK and EU have failed to reach an agreement to move to the next stage of Brexit talks, Theresa May has said.

The prime minister said talks would reconvene "before the end of the week" and she was "confident we will conclude this positively".

The talks are understood to have broken down after the Democratic Unionist Party refused to accept concessions on the Irish border issue.

Downing Street said that was not the only outstanding problem.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said a deal had been done, but the UK appeared to change its mind over the Irish border question after pressure from the DUP.

"I am surprised and disappointed that the British government now appears not to be in a position to conclude what was agreed earlier today," he told a press conference in Dublin.T

Read more: Britain and EU fail to strike Brexit talks deal - BBC News

Brexit : Britain between a rock and a hard place: First EU response to article 50 takes tough line on transitional deal - by Daniel Boffey

"Brexit and the Mouse that roare": sorry to see you go Britain

Britain will not be given a free trade deal by the EU in the next two years, and a transition arrangement to cushion the UK’s exit after 2019 can last no longer than three years, a European parliament resolution has vowed, in the first official response by the EU institutions to the triggering of article 50 by Theresa May.

A leaked copy of the resolution, on which the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has been a close conspirator, lays bare the tough path ahead for Britain as the historic process of withdrawing from the trade bloc begins.

Across 11 pages of clauses, May is warned that the EU will stridently protect its political, financial and social interests, and that the position for the UK even during the transition period will not be as positive as it is today.

A withdrawal agreement, covering financial liabilities, citizens’ rights and the border in Ireland, will need to be accepted by a qualified majority of 72% of the EU’s remaining 27 member states, representing 65% of the population. The agreement would then need to be approved by the European parliament, voting by a simple majority.

Barnier has said that any free trade deal, to be struck after the UK leaves, would be a “mixed agreement” requiring ratification by the national parliaments of the 27 states, plus consent by the European parliament.

Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s permanent representative to the EU, delivered a letter to the European council president, Donald Tusk, at 12.30pm notifying the EU of Britain’s intention to leave, as May stood up in the House of Commons to make a statement to MPs.

Addressing a press conference half an hour later, Tusk said: “There is no need to pretend that this is a happy day, neither in Brussels or in London. After all most Europeans, including almost half the British voters, wish that we would stay together not drift apart.”

Tusk said that Brexit would bind the remaining 27 member states together, and that the council and the European commission had a strong mandate to protect the EU’s interests. But he added: “As for me I will not pretend I am happy…”

One positive development following Brexit. It brought the other 27 member states  of the EU with a population of close to half a billion people closer together with no one of its present leaders ready to call a referendum or announce they would be leaving the EU 

EU-Digest

Norway: Airline Industry - Cheap Atlantic crossing may no longer be flight of fancy

Norwegian bringing back affordable fares across  the Atlantic

Low-cost airlines dominate European and American skies, but they’ve never managed to pull off the same trick and make money by flying across the Atlantic or further afield.

Now Norwegian Air Shuttle, the Oslo-based budget carrier, thinks it might have figured out how to break that pattern and challenge the alliances of legacy airlines that rule the lucrative transatlantic market.The idea of a transatlantic low-cost airline isn’t new.

Freddie Laker tried it in the 1970s with his Skytrain, but it went bust in 1982. Other efforts like Canada’s Zoom Airlines also failed. That’s because long-haul flights on wide-body airliners across oceans are a very different proposition from the short hops flown by cheaper narrow-body aircraft in the U.S. and Europe.

“I understand where they are coming from, but I yet have to be convinced it will work,” said Tim Coombs, managing director at U.K. consultancy firm Aviation Economics. “The case for the success of the long-haul, low-cost business model is not as clear-cut as it is with short-haul, low-cost.”

AirAsia X — the long-haul, low-cost affiliate of the AirAsia Group — is the international carrier with the longest track record of trying to make money by flying to distant locations, he said. “The signs so far have been unpromising,” he added. “In the past five years, it has enjoyed only one year, 2012, when it recorded a profit.”

Norwegian hopes that its effort will be different. A few smaller competitors are also venturing into the long-haul, low-cost market. They include Iceland’s WOW Air, linking Europe and America via Iceland, and France’s French Blue. But Norwegian is the largest.

Norwegian believes it has worked out how a low-cost can make long-haul routes work. It operates a single fleet type of modern aircraft on intercontinental routes and will take delivery of its first Boeing MAXs this year. It has its own short-haul network to supply passengers and is in talks with Ryanair to bring passengers to its long-haul routes. Unlike decades-old flag carriers, the Norwegian brand dates only to 2002, which means there are no legacy work practices or inflexible staff. It has scale and sufficient aircraft orders to support its growth. Its network focuses on leisure routes and it flies to secondary airports rather than big, expensive or congested airports.

Norwegian started as a traditional short-haul, low-cost carrier. But in 2013, it parted ways with rivals like Ryanair and easyJet, launching its first nonstop long-haul flights in 2013 between Oslo and New York with a fleet of brand new Boeing 787s. Norwegian posted a 246 million Norwegian krone (€33 million) net profit in 2015, reversing a 1.1 billion krone loss in 2014.

Its network has grown substantially since then, offering transatlantic flights from several cities in Northern Europe, Paris and London Gatwick, from where it introduced the U.K.’s first long-haul, low-cost flights, and now flies to eight U.S destinations. That’s posing a growing challenge to SAS, Air France, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Spain’s Iberia and Ireland’s Aer Lingus will soon feel the pinch as well. From June, Norwegian will connect Barcelona with nonstop flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco (Oakland), New York (Newark), and Miami (Fort Lauderdale). To make matters worse for Iberia, Norwegian is also considering destinations in its key markets of Argentina and Chile.

Building its intercontinental network has not been easy. But Kjos, a lawyer by training and a former fighter pilot for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, is not afraid of a good fight. It took him three years to obtain the U.S. permit for Norwegian’s Irish subsidiary, and to get it he had to abandon his initial idea to work with Asia-based contract crews in order to cut costs.

Read more: Cheap Atlantic crossing may no longer be flight of fancy – POLITICO

Tax Havens: Ireland and four UK territories named on 'world's worst tax havens' list

The Republic of Ireland along with four UK-linked territories – Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands – appear in a new list of the world’s 15 worst corporate tax havens revealed by Oxfam.

They earned their place on the list of shame because they've adopted an aggressive set of policies to enable companies to minimise their tax bills.

And Oxfam chief executive Jim Clarken has warned there is "a risk" that Northern Ireland too could be used as a tax haven when it introduces its lower rate of corporation tax in 2018, leaving those who can least afford it to pick up the tab.

Oxfam analysed key practices such as offering unfair and unproductive tax incentives and zero corporate tax rates, as well as failure to cooperate with international processes to combat tax avoidance including measures to increase financial transparency.

The ‘Tax Battles’ report highlights how tax havens help to facilitate tax dodging that robs countries around the world of vital revenue that could be used to fight poverty.

In May more than 300 top economists, including Cambridge University professor Ha-Joon Chang, warned there is no economic justification for tax havens and urged world leaders to take on the powerful vested interests that benefit from the status quo.

The new report follows Oxfam-commissioned research in Northern Ireland, conducted by Millward Brown Ulster, which revealed that 89 per cent of people here are concerned that when big firms don’t pay their fair share of tax, ordinary people pay the price.

The survey showed that 87 per cent of people in Northern Ireland want Theresa May to prioritise ending tax avoidance.

Clarken said: “Ireland is part of a toxic global tax system servicing the very wealthiest while ordinary people pay the price and lose out on essential public services.

"And with Northern Ireland set to take control of corporation tax in 2018, there is overwhelming public support to ensure any new proposed tax regime here is fair, open and transparent – and that it does not impact negatively on vulnerable people.

“Any reform of the corporate tax system must contain safeguards preventing companies from taking advantage to avoid tax owed elsewhere. Otherwise there is a risk that Northern Ireland could be used as a tax haven, leaving those who can least afford it to pick up the tab."

He added: “Tax dodging isn’t an abstract accounting game – the lost revenue has devastating consequences for the world’s poorest people who miss out on life-saving medicines and the chance to go to school.

“Around the world Ireland is known as a country of good fun, bad weather and awful tax policies that facilitate worsening inequality by allowing some of the world’s richest companies to avoid paying their fair share to society. This is no badge of honour.

“Having the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies operate as tax havens undermines these islands’ efforts to be outward-facing, responsible members of the international community. It’s time to end this embarrassing contradiction in our own backyard.”

Bermuda tops the list of 15 countries followed by the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. Switzerland and Singapore are in fourth and fifth place followed by Ireland.

Luxembourg is in seventh place, Curaçao is eighth and Hong Kong ninth. The countries ranked from 10th to 15th are Cyprus, the Bahamas, Jersey, Barbados, Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands.

Ireland’s score was based on its lack of effective rules to prevent corporate tax dodging and because it facilitates large-scale corporate tax avoidance through profit-shifting, aggressive tax planning structures and so-called sweetheart deals like the tax arrangements enjoyed by Apple that enabled the global tech giant to pay a 0.005 percent corporate tax rate.

Read more: Ireland and four UK territories named on 'world's worst tax havens' list - The Irish News

EU Taxation Policies: US warns EU over Apple’s tax case

Is Apple cutting corners when paying taxes?

The US government has threatened the European Commission (EC) with retaliation if the body decides to proceed with its plan to demand millions of dollars in unpaid taxes from technology giant Apple.

The US Treasury Department issued a rare warning on Wednesday, August 24, accusing the Brussels-based body of becoming a “supranational tax authority” that poses a threat to international agreements concerning tax reform.

“The US Treasury Department continues to consider potential responses should the Commission continue its present course,” the Treasury said in its strongest language to date.

“A strongly preferred and mutually beneficial outcome would be a return to the system and practice of international tax cooperation that has long fostered cross-border investment between the United States and EU member states,” the warning added.

The European Union (EU) has been investigating a series of tax deals between Apple and Ireland which allow the iPhone maker to pay little or no tax on income earned across Europe.

The EC is expected to rule on the case next month. This is the biggest corporate tax avoidance investigation ever undertaken by the commission.

The EC is the executive body of the EU, responsible for implementing decisions, proposing legislation, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the bloc.

According to investment bank JP Morgan, if Apple is forced to retroactively pay the Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent on its pre-tax profits, the company might need to cash out as much as $19 billion.

A 2013 report by US Senate confirmed that Apple has paid little to no taxes on at least $74 billion of the profit it earned by exploiting Irish and American tax laws.

Tim Cook, who became Apple’s CEO after the death of its founder Steve Jobs five years ago, has denounced the case as “political crap.”

“There is no truth behind it,” he said. “Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.”

The EU estimates that tax avoidance by multinational corporations costs member states anywhere between $50 million to $78 billion a year in lost taxes.

In addition to Apple, other American companies like Amazon and Starbucks are also suspected of tax evasion.

Note EU-Digest: Hopefully the EU Commission does not cave-in for these US misguided threats and intimidations and tells the US Treasury Department where to shove this warning, which is protective of US corporate tax evaders.   

Read more: PressTV-US warns EU over Apple’s tax case

Ireland remains fastest-growing economy in Europe

Ireland has retained its status as the European Union’s fastest-growing economy, according to European Commission forecasts published this morning.

The Commission’s triannual analysis of the EU’s 2 economies predicts that Irish gdp (gross domestic product) will grow by 4.5 per cent this year, before slowing to 3.5 per cent in 2017. following growth of 6.9 per ce

 Read more:Ireland remains fastest-growing economy in Europe