Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, taxes are one of the pillars of national sovereignty. We must not question this principle of fiscal sovereignty, just as we must not turn a blind eye to the challenges of a globalised economy and an internal market as integrated as ours. Administrative cooperation in tax matters is essential for the effort to combat tax fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. The exchange of information between Member States is a fundamental instrument for the Union to be an area of fair taxation, where everyone pays what he or she owes and only what he or she owes. This exchange of information needs to be strengthened in the progressive increase of information, but above all in its quality. What we have found with this report is that all the Member States, all of them, are failing in this work and that is the main warning that we must leave behind. We need to exchange more information and better information, but first we need to be competent to comply with what the law already dictates. Let it be clear: we do not want this reinforcement of the exchange of information to be just an administrative issue, it cannot be indifferent to European citizens. With more and better information we want to reduce red tape, save on administrative burdens and free resources for tax authorities to better fulfil their mission, always with the utmost respect for taxpayers' rights, from data protection to privacy. More information means more responsibility, better information must mean best practice and enhanced cooperation must mean results. This is what this Parliament must do and what European citizens deserve.

Madam President, Europe is on the right track. Today's economic forecasts are encouraging, but the reality is still very different from country to country. While some Member States grow above 7%, others, such as Portugal, fall short of the European average. National governments must do their part. We do not need propaganda about bazucas, European money, but concrete initiatives to improve public investment, boost private investment and create more jobs. The general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact is an important flexibility mechanism. We have another year and a half to make the most of these conditions. But we must not stop here, we must seize this opportunity to reform economic governance. First, the public debt. We need a mechanism that is based on the control of public expenditure with attention to the concrete reality of each country. The vaccine for the debt virus is a responsible fiscal policy, with smart spending and below growth levels. Secondly, the budget deficit. We need clear and transparent criteria for controlling deficits. Assessing only numbers and percentages is worth little, captivations and extraordinary measures, for example, guarantee lower numbers, but do not mean a structural reduction. Thirdly, fiscal policy. Taxation is a Member State competence, but fraud and tax evasion or money laundering are borderless phenomena. We need more cooperation and coordination to improve our tax systems and free Europeans from tax burdens that threaten the competitiveness of our economies. Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't have much time to respond to the health emergency, but we did. We don't have much time to relaunch our economies, but let's do it.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, there are no achievements without a good strategy and a good implementation. Both are crucial to achieving the goals. The European Green Deal strategy, or the Green Deal, is a very good and very comprehensive strategy, but it needs equally good operationalisation and implementation tools if we are to achieve our objectives. One of these instruments is what we discussed here today: the General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030. The goals are ambitious but achievable. Contrary to what extremists such as reactionary denialists or environmental terrorists want, the Program makes it possible to reconcile growth with respect for the environment, working to decouple economic growth from the use of resources and introducing the concept of the economy of sustainable well-being. It will also be a tool for biodiversity protection, zero pollution ambition and, of course, climate neutrality. It will also provide the climate environmental data on the overall efforts of the European Union needed to assess the progress made and allow policymakers and all Europeans to know whether the Union and its Member States are on track to achieve the promised results. A good idea is of no use if it is poorly implemented in practice. This programme has the great importance of being the concrete translation of our environmental and climate ambitions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, moments of difficulty, or unexpected shock, in a pandemic are also often moments of learning. With these difficult times and with the virus we all learn. Scientists have learned, health professionals have learned, and we politicians have learned. In all sectors there has certainly been a learning of great importance. Although the pandemic is not over yet, we need to adjust our procedures, our activities and our organisations, based on learning what we did not know before and know today. We have learned that the Union must be more effective in managing supply chains and stocks of medicines and medical devices. We have learned that we need a better defined legal framework to manage the response to such scenarios. We have learned that we need greater Union preparedness in the event of a public health emergency. We have learned that we need to improve information management. Data collection and management appears to be central to the response to a pandemic. A stronger European Medicines Agency will help in this preparation, helping to prevent shortages of medicines and critical medical devices, and will allow us to be faster in approving but also in developing medicines. Only then will we be preparing Europe for future threats.