Economic issues at the top of EP’s June II plenary agenda

Written by Tessa Tumbrägel

Economic and budgetary affairs will be the focus of Parliament’s next mini-plenary session taking place on Wednesday 24 June in Brussels.

The preparations of the 25-26 June European Council meeting will be the first item on the agenda. During the meeting, leaders will discuss a variety of topics, ranging from migration and security challenges to various economic issues, including review of the EU’s economic governance framework, the conclusion of the 2015 European Semester, EU-US negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the state of play concerning the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

MEPs will seek to pre-empt discussions in the Council by holding their own debate on several of the issues, beginning with rules creating and governing the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), as proposed by the Commission in its Investment Plan for Europe (also known as the ‘Juncker Plan’). Backed by a guarantee from the EU budget, the EFSI will aim to foster job creation and growth across Europe, by promoting public and private investment worth an estimated €315 billion over the next three years. EU negotiators reached a political agreement on EFSI regulation in May 2015. The agreed text now needs to be adopted by the Parliament and the Council, in order for the EFSI to become operational.

Parliament will also be holding negotiations on a report, drafted by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), on the review of the EU’s economic governance framework. The framework is intended to detect, prevent, and correct problematic economic trends and help Member States weather the impacts of the financial and economic crisis. As part of the review, the report suggests, among other things, closer economic coordination between the EU and its Member States to improve fiscal capacity and assistance mechanisms. It also underlines the importance of democratic accountability, transparency and the participation of social partners.

MEPs will then be updated on the action plan for a fairer corporate tax system in the EU, presented by the Commission on 17 June. Representing the second of two tax initiatives in the Commission’s work program for 2015 – the first element being the proposed Tax Transparency Package – the action plan sets out a series of measures which the Commission believes will help tackle tax avoidance and make the corporate tax environment in the EU fairer, more efficient and more growth-friendly. Measures include a strategy to re-launch the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), and a framework for matching taxation to profit generation. Other proposals and activities are directed at improving the tax environment for businesses, making further progress on tax transparency and strengthening EU coordination tools.

The plenary will also hear a number of oral questions from different committees on the transparency of the application of the Stability and Growth Pact.