#EUNews - Let’s talk about what the EU actually does 🔊 birthdays, taxing Nike, Migration and preparing for next week

📌Happy birthday to €U: The €uro turned 20🎁💶🎂
📌Just did it: Commission opens in-depth investigation into tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands✔️🤑🔍
📌Migration: Commission stresses efforts to finalise the reform of the EU's asylum rules have to be made now 💥🚧🛥️
📌Plenary preparations: might boost jobs with InvestEU, and suspend EU funds when breaking with European values 🔮👔📈

Happy birthday to €U: The €uro turned 20🎁💶🎂
➡️ 20 years ago, on 1 January 1999, 11 EU countries launched a common currency and introduced a shared monetary policy, which responsibilities were given to the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem. After three years of appearing on people’s bank
statements alongside national currencies, euro banknotes and coins arrived in 12 countries, which thereby participated in the largest currency changeover in history. Today the euro is the currency of 340 million Europeans in 19 Member States.

Just did it: Commission opens in-depth investigation into tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands✔️🤑🔍
➡️ As a result of rulings calculating the royalty payments, Nike and a corresponding company are only taxed in the Netherlands on a limited operating margin based on sales. At this stage, the Commission is concerned that the royalty payments endorsed by the rulings may not reflect economic reality. They appear to be higher than what independent companies negotiating on market terms would have agreed between themselves in accordance with the arm's length principle.
🔜 The Netherlands have announced plans for a broad reform tightening the requirements for tax rulings concerning international structures.

Migration: Commission stresses efforts to finalise the reform of the EU's asylum rules have to be made now 💥🚧🛥️
➡️Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos made his open remarks on the solution found with regards to the disembarkation of NGO vessels and progress under the European Agenda on Migration. He congratulated those member states that were involved in stabilizing the situations on the boats that were afloat over the holidays, commenting that when human values and solidarity were not upheld it is not Europe. Although the number of irregular border crossings seems to be down to pre-crisis levels, cooperation with third countries still is key to preventing irregular departures to Europe in the first place and to eliminate human trafficking.

Plenary preparations: might boost jobs with InvestEU, and suspend EU funds when breaking with European values 🔮👔📈
🔜 While we eagerly wait for more news from the EP in this freshly started election year, political groups prepare for the plenary session in Strasbourg, where they will vote on a new tool to uphold EU values that includes possible suspension of EU funds as well as the InvestEU programme, aiming at boosting jobs, growth and investment. MEPs will assess the work of the outgoing Austrian Presidency as well as of the incoming Romanian one, discuss the conclusions of the December European Council and continue the debate on the future of Europe with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

🔥 If you want to be updated, too, we suggest the European Parliament's press service http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room and the European Commission's news room https://europa.eu/newsroom/home_en