Today the Socialists and Democrats led a broad coalition in the plenary to include digital provider companies such as Netflix or iTunes (Apple) in the digital services tax (DST). The S&Ds lamented the rejection by the conservatives and the liberals of a proposal to increase the tax rate on digital services provided by tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Booking or Amazon from 3% to 5%. They also reiterated their call for putting an end to the unanimity rule on tax.

 

Today Socialists and Democrats welcomed the ruling of the General Court according to which the European Commission exceeded its powers by allowing much higher NOX emissions. It weakened emission limits through the back door by granting the car industry very large deviation margins to emit the legal limits established the new Real Driving Emissions tests regulation. With this ruling, the General Court upholds the actions brought by the cities of Paris, Brussels and Madrid against the Commission.

 

 

The Socialists and Democrats led today a vote in the economic and monetary affairs committee to facilitate private investment in low-carbon technologies, such as renewable energies, across the EU and thereby meeting the Paris Agreement objectives. The new harmonised rules on benchmarks will help enhance transparency in sustainable financing by establishing clear criteria on sustainability and by fighting ‘greenwashing’.