58.Supports the creation of a system of competitiveness authorities tasked with bringing together the national bodies responsible for tracking progress in the area of competitiveness in each Member State, and proposes that tracking of progress of such a system should be under the supervision of the Commission;

59.Considers it necessary to improve the automatic information exchange between national tax authorities in order to avoid tax planning, base erosion and profit shifting, as well as to promote coordinated actions to fight tax havens; calls for the adoption of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base directive establishing a minimum rate and spelling out common objectives for progressive harmonisation; deems it necessary to embark on a comprehensive review of the existing VAT legislation, addressing i.a. the issue of reduced rates and the introduction of the country of origin principle, and to establish a partially automatic stabilising mechanism to foster convergence and counter differences in the economic cycles of the Member States;

60.Recalls the need for proper democratic legitimacy and accountability to be ensured at the levels of decision-making with national parliaments scrutinising national governments, with an enhanced scrutiny role for the European Parliament at EU level, including a central role, together with the Council, in the adoption of the Convergence Code;

61.Insists that, when additional EU powers are required, Parliament’s role in economic governance be strengthened by means of extending the ordinary legislative procedure to matters of economic and fiscal affairs, including the harmonisation of tax law and social law, using the flexibility clause, in combination with Article 333 (2) TFEU (enhanced cooperation) and general use of the ‘passerelle clause’ enshrined in Article 47 (8) TEU, to strengthen the democratic legitimacy and effectiveness of EU governance;

62.Reiterates that interparliamentary cooperation should not be seen as establishing a new joint parliamentary body or any other institution, because the euro is the currency of the EU and the European Parliament is the parliament of the EU; recalls that the EMU is established by the Union, whose citizens are directly represented at Union level by Parliament, which can find ways to guarantee the parliamentary democratic accountability of eurozone-specific decisions;

63.Insists that the Commission be endowed with powers to implement and enforce any future or existing instruments adopted in the area of EMU;

64.Considers it necessary to address the weakness in the existing institutional structure, whereby certain parts of the Treaty may be overseen by the Court of Justice while others are excluded from such scrutiny; calls for binding coordination and surveillance of the budgetary discipline of those Member States whose currency is the euro, subject to the control of the Court of Justice on the basis of Article 136 TFEU, in conjunction with Article 121 (6), and under strengthened parliamentary scrutiny in the detailed implementation of Article 121 (3) and (4) TFEU;

65.Is of the opinion that differentiated integration should remain open to all Member States;

66.Recalls that priority should be given to the ordinary legislative and budgetary procedures at EU level by making use, when necessary, of derogations and the establishment of dedicated budget lines; recalls that any other provisions, such as eurozone or enhanced cooperation provisions, should only be used when the aforementioned procedures are not legally or politically possible;

67.Is convinced that the deepening of the EMU should go hand in hand with the completion of the internal market by removing all remaining internal barriers, especially as concerns the Energy Union, the common digital market and the market in services;

68.Calls for full enforcement of existing internal energy market legislation according to Article 194 TFEU in order to establish an Energy Union;

69. Supports the creation of a European Energy Agency under Article 204 of the Euratom Treaty, as well as the establishment of a European strategic reserve and a joint negotiating centre with suppliers, with a view to completing the institutional structure of the Energy Union;

70.Encourages the use of ‘project bonds’, in close cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB), for the financing infrastructure and energy projects;

71.Stresses that the rights of workers, when they exercise their right of mobility, should be guaranteed, along with their social rights, in accordance with Articles 151 and 153 TFEU, in order to ensure a stable social basis for the EMU;

72.Points out the importance of promoting the idea of a minimal wage determined by each Member State, and suggests that, under current Treaty provisions, an ‘Employees Mobility Directive’ could be adopted to reduce still-existing barriers for employees;

73.Calls on the Commission to set up social criteria for the evaluation of Member States’ performance, and to recommend structural reform, through the modification of Regulation No 1303/2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, to ensure better use of regional and social funds;

74.Calls on the Commission to asses better the need for EU action, and the potential economic, social and environmental impacts of alternative policy options before it proposes a new initiative (as legislative proposals, non-legislative initiatives and implementing and delegated acts), in keeping with the Better Regulation Guidelines adopted by the Commission on 19 May 2015[7];