Andrzej Kubisiak, “EU Observer”: The consultation of social partners on the submission by the European Commission of a proposal for an EU minimum wage lasted until the end of February.

Piotr Arak, “EU Observer”: In the US we have the primaries and presidential elections this year but in the EU the budgetary negotiations will make for a good reality TV. Some will be losers, and some will be winners.

Piotr Arak, “Visegrad Insight”: Cohesion policy promotes upward social convergence among EU countries. It is well-managed, well monitored and supports quality projects. Unlike tax avoidance and evasion, cohesion funding is a cash flow that works and delivers results.

Piotr Arak, “Euractiv”: Cross-border tax evasion is a problem for the EU and there is no reason to exclude EU member states from the tax haven assessment. Therefore, the EU needs a New Tax Deal.

Piotr Arak, “The Rift”: Mid-December EU leaders have reached an agreement on achieving climate-neutrality by 2050 but with Poland opting-out of the target. It doesn’t mean that Poland takes an opposite attitude towards common ambition of achieving climate neutrality.

Nearly EUR 960 billion – this is the size of the European Union’s current budget. That astronomical sum, however, is ⅕ lower than 7-year cumulative losses due to taxes escaping across the borders of the EU Member States. The mere elimination of artificial profit shifting by multinational corporations between jurisdictions would lead to the recovery of EUR 420 billion, i.e. an amount exceeding the EU’s appropriations for cohesion policy. Germany, the United Kingdom and France suffer the highest CIT losses related to the functioning of tax havens. The most recent report of the Polish Economic Institute and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, entitled ‘Tax unfairness in the European Union. Towards greater solidarity in fighting tax evasion’, demonstrates that many problems in Europe could be solved by reducing the scale of cross-border tax avoidance and evasion.

The rivalry between the United States and China is a clash between two global systems: the Bretton Woods monetary system and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is the nucleus of a parallel system. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated changes in both systems and intensified frictions between them.For both players—the US and China—the Three Seas region is of particular importance. It is a belt stretching across 12 European countries, from Estonia through Poland to Bulgaria. Both the Three Seas region and the European Union will have to face the rivalry of these global actors, who make use of so-called sticky power. Today, this rivalry no longer concerns only influence over financial and monetary systems or civilizational identity—West versus Confucian values—but also control over 5G infrastructure and the international image related to responsibility for the outbreak of the pandemic. These are the conclusions of the Polish Economic Institute report “Belt and Road meets Three Seas. Chinese and American sticky power in the context of Polish security and other strategic interests.”

Piotr Arak: In her stirring speech to the European Parliament last week the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the European Green Deal. She confirmed the earlier announcements about substantial upscaling of the EU climate targets for 2030 and 2050.

Losses resulting from tax avoidance and profit shifting to tax havens amount to as much as EUR 900 billion in Europe. At a time when funding sources are being sought for ambitious pan-European projects—such as the energy transition—effectively tapping into these resources is essential. According to analysts at the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), the European project can be strengthened through a clear commitment to the single market, rather than through protectionism. These conclusions are presented in PIE’s latest report on priorities for the new European Commission.

The dietary supplements market in Poland was worth PLN 4.4 billion in 2017, and its value has been growing dynamically. Although almost half of Poles (48%) consume supplements regularly, only 27% are able to define them correctly. A lack of knowledge about the regulations governing the sale of dietary supplements and the possible effects of their use is one of the main problems of this market, as indicated in the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) report “Regulation of the dietary supplements market. Does Poland have a chance to become a European leader?”