European Union

Revised version, December 2025

Tax expenditures (TEs) are benefits granted through the tax system that lower government revenue and the tax liability of beneficiaries. Governments worldwide use TEs to pursue different policy goals such as attracting investment, boosting innovation and mitigating inequality. At the same time, TEs are costly: according
to the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED), the worldwide average over the 1990-2023 period is 3.7 percent of GDP and 23.0 percent of tax revenue
(Redonda et al., 2025). When ill designed, they can be ineffective in reaching their stated goals. They can also be highly distortive and trigger negative externalities.
Yet, despite the fact that TEs have similar effects on public budgets as direct spending programmes, the lack of transparency in the TE field is striking, as only
116 out of 218 jurisdictions have reported on TEs at least once since 1990.1 In addition, the quality, regularity and scope of such reports are highly heterogeneous and, in many cases, do not allow to engage in meaningful discussions on the effectiveness and efficiency of TEs. The Global Tax Expenditures Transparency Index (GTETI) is the first comparative assessment of TE reporting covering jurisdictions worldwide. It provides a systematic framework to rank jurisdictions according to the regularity, quality and scope of their TE reports, and seeks to increase transparency and accountability in the TE field. Note that countries are not scored, ranked or compared on the size of revenue forgone reported, nor on the quality of their TE policy as such. This new version of the Companion Paper introduces the GTETI, outlines the updates made to the index since December 2024, and provides an in-depth explanation of its five dimensions and 25 indicators. It also discusses the rationale, scope, methodology, and assumptions
underpinning the GTETI assessment process. The Companion Paper explains the limitations and issues users should bear in mind when consulting the index, which is publicly available free of charge on the Tax Expenditures Lab website,  www.taxexpenditures.org.

Justice Commissioner McGrath said independent media must be able to thrive in every EU country

Many diplomats suspect Belgium’s staunch resistance to the EU's floated “reparations loan” harmed rival Vincent Van Peteghem’s efforts to succeed Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe

Pellegrini highlighted the insufficient guarantees for victim protection and unresolved EU concerns

How is Blue Education reshaping learning by connecting students to their maritime environment, their communities, and the wider blue economy? Bernardo Mata, from the Directorate General for Maritime Policy, where he is a part of the team responsible for the implementation of the Blue School programme in Portugal, and Remco Schaap, a teacher of history […]

How we can build careers for a sustainable ocean? From ports and shipyards to corporate boardrooms and coastal classrooms, blue skills and ocean literacy are becoming essential for the future of the blue economy. Sustainability consultant Els Duffhues and Secretary General of the European Boating Industry Philip Easthill discuss with Euractiv’s Xhoi Zajmi how Europe […]

The move follows Mogherini’s resignation amid allegations she accessed confidential information during an EU public tender

In a year defined by deepfakes, AI-generated influence campaigns, and an increasingly polarised information space, understanding how trust can be protected online has never been more urgent. Viktoras Daukšas, head of Debunk.org, joins Euractiv’s Xhoi Zajmi to explore what stood out this year, how AI is reshaping both misinformation and its detection, and what tools and […]

After a spell of high prices, farmers in parts of the EU now face falling returns, though the Commission says it is too early to act

The move comes a day after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever openly questioned the legality of the European Commission’s proposal to permanently freeze Moscow's funds

The mayor called the accusations "absurd", saying the municipality has the right to "hold any event it wants on its own public property"

Spokespersons for Parliament and for the political groups will hold a briefing on the 15 - 18 December plenary session, on Friday at 11.00 in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Spokespersons for Parliament and for the political groups will hold a briefing on the 15 - 18 December plenary session, on Friday at 11.00 in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Bulgaria on Wednesday to protest against the government and corruption in the latest rally since the end of last month.

The SAFE initiative was initially pitched to replenish national defence stockpiles through joint purchases

The arrests are tied to suspected contracts manipulation within the broader kickback-for-contracts scheme engulfing Prime minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party

Courts have ruled domestic energy firms can't sue EU governments – Budapest thinks otherwise

German-Israeli relations became strained after Berlin imposed a partial embargo on arms deliveries to Israel

Both volumes and prices have fallen, "dragging export revenues to their lowest since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022," the International Energy Agency said.

• The European Parliament that emerged after the June 2024 elections is characterized by a high level of diversity and fragmentation.
• More than 200 national and transnational parties are represented, with more than one third of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) belonging to very small political parties, with one to three representatives, or have no party affiliation. Ten national parties gather 204 MEPs, dominating political interactions in the EP environment.
• The observed fragmentation enhances diversity and pluralism but also undermines the formation of stable political and ideological networks and coalitions.
• The EPP, the S&D, and Renew, together with the Greens at some (small) distance, form the cluster of the ‘governing majority’. ESN and PfE are located far away from this first cluster. The European Left and the ECR have an intermediate position, showing thematic flexibility and an occasional, selective ad hoc convergence with either cluster in different votes.
• S&D is the most cohesive political group in the EP, followed by the EPP and the RENEW group that also show a high level of cohesion. Large deviations in the voting patterns of their constituent members exist in the ECR and PfE groups.
• Combining our findings with the ones of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) on the ideological positions of the EP political groups, we find that the groups’ positions on European integration explain voting alignment better than ideology does. This reinforces a key literature insight that European integration has become perhaps the most influential cleavage in the EP politics — one that increasingly structures legislative behaviour beyond the traditional Left–Right divide.

Read here in pdf the Working paper by Antonis Papakostas, former EU official; Research Associate, ELIAMEP; Spyros Blavoukos, Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business; Senior Research Fellow and Head of the ‘Ariane Condellis’ European Program, ELIAMEP and Georgios Matsoukas, Research Assistant, ELIAMEP.