24Feb 2023 by Joost Mulder
Brace yourself – elections are coming: Advocacy opportunities in 2023

Brace yourself – elections are coming: Advocacy opportunities in 2023

News, Opinion
While the European Parliament elections might still seem far away, recent developments reveal that the election season has already begun. Since the Qatargate scandal rocked the Parliament, political parties are publicly accusing one another in an effort to polish their image – a clear indication that the gates of the electoral arena have been opened. With the start of the election season, the time is right to look at the anticipated changes and plan your next advocacy steps. What is going to change? According to the latest polls of December 2022, five out of seven political groups are expected to lose seats in the next legislative period. Only the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) are foreseen to substantially win seats, although not as many as their national equivalents in some…
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24Apr 2018 by Joost Mulder
MEPs: Green finance good, sustainable finance better

MEPs: Green finance good, sustainable finance better

News
As the European Commission is finalizing the last set of legislative proposals that can still be completed before the European Parliament elections, MEPs today adopted a non-legislative report in ECON calling for a more ambitious strategy on sustainable finance. MEPs support the criticism that the Commission's Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth is too narrowly focused on climate change and should support a wider European agenda on long-term sustainable financing of the European economy. (more…)
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31Jan 2018 by Joost Mulder
HLEG Sustainable Finance – waiting for the Commission’s Action Plan

HLEG Sustainable Finance – waiting for the Commission’s Action Plan

News, Opinion
Today, the EU High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance published its final report. It's a key step but not the final one - the Commission's Action Plan on sustainable finance, due early March 2018, is where we will see which recommendations will be transformed into EU policy initiatives. The final HLEG report (PDF) published on 31 January 2018 widens the scope of sustainable finance beyond environment and climate change to social issues (although governance issues seem to be left out). (more…)
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07Nov 2017 by Joost Mulder

Cold shower for European Financial Supervision changes

News
Looking at the Presidency briefing, today's ECOFIN discussion on European financial supervision promised to be difficult. It suggested that "Whereas some member states support the proposed reforms, a number of others are critical. In their view, the proposals don't reflect the results of the Commission's public consultation, and are insufficiently justified by its impact assessment. Concerns have also been expressed about the complexity of the proposals, and the additional burden this will place on market players." (more…)
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