since 2011, the Authority has strengthened that framework with the adoption of its revised policy on independence and scientific decision-making processes; is, however, concerned about the adequacy of the revised policy, pointing to numerous cases of conflict of interests exposed in 2012 by two watchdog non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - Corporate Europe Observatory and Earth Open Source; demands that further improvements, including the banning of links with industry-related bodies, be made to the Authority's independence policy,

- since 2011, the Authority has strengthened that framework with the adoption of its revised policy on independence and scientific decision-making processes; is, however, concerned about the adequacy of the revised policy, pointing to numerous cases of conflict of interests exposed in 2012 by two watchdog NGOs - Corporate Europe Observatory and Earth Open Source; demands that further improvements, including the banning of links with industry-related bodies, be made to the Authority's independence policy;

There was a consultation that was taken at that point, and then revised NRT and FIE proposals, if you will, were included in Budget 2010.

For instance, in budget 2010 we proposed to address tax planning practices that have developed, which have allowed under particular circumstances a portion of stock-based employment benefits to escape taxation at both personal and corporate levels, by: preventing tax arbitrage opportunities involving leases with government entities, other tax exempt entities or non-residents who are not subject to Canadian taxation; consulting regarding a proposal to require taxpayers to identify aggressive tax planning, which will provide the Canada Revenue Agency with early notice of new and emerging aggressive tax-avoidance schemes; consulting on re ...[+++]vised proposals to prevent tax avoidance through the use of offshore trusts or other foreign investment entities; and ensuring that businesses cannot inappropriately capitalize on the differences between the tax systems of Canada and other countries to artificially increase foreign tax credits related to cross-border transactions and, thus, pay less tax.

In doing so, I will concentrate on four key issues: the transition of my office into a parliamentary entity; the building of dialogue with our parliamentary clientele in the administration of the code; the administration of a revised Code for Public Office Holders; and examinations done pursuant to either the Parliament of Canada Act or the Members' Conflict of Interest Code.

More precisely, the principal amendments introduced in the revised proposal consist of: Objective (1) making it clear that the proposal under discussion will not open up the EU market any further to suppliers from third countries (scope of the measure), notably by: clarifying the fields of application of the GPA and the Directives, as well as a clear statement as to the legal regime applicable to third country suppliers Objective (2) rewording the text concerning the technical dialogue in order to make it more flexible, notably by: replacing the earlier provision on "technical dialogue" by a recital and Objective (3) re-examining a number of amendments in order to remain as far as possible within the sectors covered by the GPA, notably by: ...[+++]limiting to the sectors covered by the GPA the obligation to inform eliminated candidates or tenderers of the reasons for their rejection and eliminated tenderers of the characteristics and advantages of the tender selected limiting the application of the changes in the thresholds to the contracts and sectors subject to the GPA limiting the amendments to the model notices, and in particular the notice on the existence of a qualification system (Annex XIII) and the periodic information notice (Annex XIV), to what is explicitly required by the GPA as is the case regarding the information to be provided by contracting entities when they invite candidates to confirm their interest following publication of a periodic indicative notice used as a means of calling for competition and introducing an obligation on the Commission to respect the commercially-sensitive nature of information communicated by contracting entities in notices on contracts awarded and concerning prices.