10/12/2018 (Agence Europe) – A group of 120 intellectuals (including French economist Thomas Piketty) and left-wing politicians from 16 Member States launched an appeal in the French newspaper Le Monde on Sunday 9 December to reform the Union and give it a new structure. They propose to increase the EU budget to 4% of European GDP, financed by taxes on corporate profits, carbon emissions, and high incomes and wealth. They wish to create a "Sovereign European Assembly" made up of national MPs to cement its legitimacy to raise taxes. “National MPs will no longer be able to simply offload their responsibility onto Brussels, and will have no choice but to explain to voters the projects and budgets they intend to defend in the European Assembly”, the signatories explain. To read the whole article: https://lemde.fr/2C0XofD. (PH)