What Fernando spoke about.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, paying for and accessing cash is becoming increasingly difficult for citizens. Europe relies on digital payment providers controlled by third countries. Ignoring this is no longer an option. This package protects cash like never before under EU law and also offers the digital euro: one more alternative, not an imposition. However, dear citizens, some prefer t

Madam President, Commissioner, a 28th tax regime for start-ups and scale-ups has the potential to help these companies have better funding options and have access to larger markets to expand and innovate. This can help Europe move away from the medium-technology trap that is currently keeping the EU's economy behind. To keep up globally, we need far more disruption and innovation in our economy. T

Madam President, President Lagarde, Commissioner, dear colleagues, bringing inflation back to target after the pandemic has been a challenge. But it's been no worse than in any other major economy. So in this regard, let me reiterate what I said on a similar occasion one year ago: well done. But deep down, things are getting much tougher. The challenge to central bank independence is not a US oddi

Mr President, Commissioner, hyper‑complexity in the tax domain reduces competitiveness in basically two ways. Firstly, it deters cross‑border investments, so not all EU firms can tap the same pool of finance. Secondly, it imposes heavy compliance costs on those who clear the hurdle and manage to finally operate across borders. The outcome is both predictable and dismal. Too many EU companies canno

Madam President, Commissioner, in Europe, populist leaders on the right and on the left are fuelling the intergenerational confrontation with the frustration of young people for their future, with the concern of many older people for their safety and with the anxiety of many adults for their work. One against all where rights and culprits are emphasized and obligations and solutions are circumvent

Mr President, Commissioner, President von der Leyen said this very morning that our imperative is for Europe to 'step up where others have stepped away'. Well, this imperative applies particularly to international taxation: resisting the temptation of unilateral action is not a sign of weakness. It is responsibility and leadership. But what should we do if others do act unilaterally? Some may argu

Let me be very clear on the point of own funds and European taxes: I think that what Europe's competitiveness needs is no more taxes, especially not on firms. So, some of the proposals that have been put forward, for example own resources, I think they need to be revisited because having more taxes on companies – especially on medium‑sized companies – I think it's not the way forward, in particula

Madam President, Commissioner, reforms, fiscal sustainability and investment are the way to prevent more layers of the European population from falling behind. When governments put fiscal sustainability at risk, they threaten citizen confidence in the welfare state itself and undermine investor confidence. That is why we need to strengthen the fiscal sustainability rules – not weaken them – and st

Mr President, what will digital technologies hold for us? Technology is simply enabling and it is up to us, as policy makers, to steer its use towards the general interest. Associating technology with goodness is as absurd as its opposite, or as confusing novelty with progress. If we do this, we run the risk of being dazzled by new technological possibilities and forgetting the substance of what w

Mr President, the global technological race began years ago and Europe has been left out of the generation of major disruptions of the last quarter century. Is it an unrecoverable delay? Of course not, but doing so involves tapping into our strengths and overcoming our weaknesses. Our strengths are clear: the general educational level of the population, talent, and technical and scientific infrast

Mr President, thank you, and thank you all, colleagues, for all your all your comments and discussions. I would like to close this session on my side thanking all the Members and all shadow rapporteurs from all groups for the hard work, trying to find a compromise that I think is reasonable and acceptable for most of us. So, I would like to ask for the support of all of you, colleagues, for this r

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this report is particularly relevant for Europe at the present time. Not surprisingly, the European Semester is the main tool for economic policy coordination between Member States. A little over a year ago we reached an agreement on the new fiscal rules, more flexible rules that incorporate a medium-term orientation to anchor the sustainability of

Mr President, Commissioner, the Competitiveness Compass has, in my opinion, a good diagnosis of the European economy; in short, a deficit of competitiveness with respect to the main economies of the world, as a result, first of all, of a deficit in the generation and dissemination of innovative ideas in the production of goods and services. Second, by comparatively higher energy costs, even with r

Mr President, Commissioner, President Lagarde, I want to begin by recognising the successful job the ECB has done under your leadership in ensuring price stability amid major shocks. A soft landing is now within reach – well done. Dear colleagues, this recognition, however, should not blur our judgement on the digital euro initiative. We all agree on the need to digitally proof the single currency

Mr President, Commissioner, as we in the European Union embrace the restrictions of the Green Deal, our global competitors are moving forward. in their environmental commitments with less burdens and greater pragmatism, and responding to market impulses and technological progress. European primary and industrial sectors face more restrictions, thus losing global competitiveness. We have paid a pri

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the fact that Europe has lagged behind in the technological revolution of the last 15 years has, in fact, more to do with the underdevelopment of the venture capital ecosystem than with economic debates that sometimes attract more attention. This is because venture capital is, in the first place, the natural way to finance innovative projects th

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 'taxing the very rich to end poverty' is the title of today's debate. What an attractive title! But what a great fallacy for those for whom poverty is not merely a number, an index, but actually evokes to them the suffering and legitimate yearnings for progress of flesh-and-blood people. For those I have good and bad news. The good news is that for the first tim

Mr President, the recent ruling on the issue of state aid to Apple offers us some important lessons for the future design of European industrial policy, but for this it is first of all important to understand what this case is really about, and what it is about is not tax justice or tax evasion or calling into question the tax competences of the Member States, as we have heard here today. It is si