Speeches

Mr President, I understand the concern that we would give algorithms control over decisions that can seriously affect human life. For example, because algorithms can make mistakes. However, I do not agree that, solely on the basis of such concerns, we should ban across the board the use of artificial intelligence wherever it may have a legal impact on the individual, as this report suggests. We should have analyses that honestly compare the functionality and effectiveness of human and algorithmic decision-making and make a better choice. There are already examples of successful use of AI in criminal matters that have led to a more efficient and fair system. For example, the New Jersey Prison Prosecution Reform.

Madam President, I fully support the exchange of tax information and I am against tax evasion. However, we are to some extent again in a situation where the report turned into a political fight over the questions of tax harmonisation in the European Union. I believe national tax sovereignty should be maintained. Tax harmonisation in the Union might result in the limitation of tax competition. I believe healthy tax competition has benefits compared to full tax harmonisation, as it enables Member States to compare and apply best practices of the other Member States. Cuts on inefficient spending can allow governments to buy more for the same money or to use the savings to reduce the tax burden to attract international investment and stimulate economic growth and innovation. We should not limit this option yet.

Madam President, it is such a time that the ECON report on the review of the macroeconomic legislative framework, a report which to a large extent concerns the reform of fiscal rules in the European Union, mentions the word consolidation only once, and only in the subsequent phrase, and I quote: "The European Parliament calls for the early consolidation of public finances to be avoided." End of quote. As if we really believed that rising public debt is a permanent source of wealth growth, and as if we had already stopped saying what was still used to be said before this crisis, that in good times debt needs to be reduced. I agree that consolidation needs to be timed for a period of good times after the pandemic, when stable economic growth will be restored. But the preparation of consolidation plans in the Member States should come today so that we are ready to start consolidation as soon as the general escape clause is deactivated. Governments should already today identify concrete consolidation measures that will increase the sustainability of public finances in the long term. The basis of such a list should be the identification of inefficient spending, otherwise the lesson from this crisis will only be that higher public debt today means higher taxes tomorrow. As the ECON report does not call on Member States to prepare consolidation, I cannot support it.

Mr President, according to the Commission's plan, the European Investment Bank is also to contribute an additional 350 billion new investments to climate objectives every year by 2030. However, it is not enough to label investments as green for recovery. Recovery requires investment to be productive, deliver long-term economic growth and meet climate objectives efficiently. All EIB investment objectives must be subject to an independent evaluation of their value for money. Without value for money, the Union's 2030 targets may end, like the already forgotten ambition of becoming the world's most competitive economy by 2010, with unnecessarily limited economic growth and unnecessarily expensive climate targets.