Good afternoon to you all, We have a vision of a better Europe in 2050, where pollution is brought down to levels no longer harmful to human health. We have defined it in the Zero Pollution Action Plan, which is part of the European Green Deal. When we adopted this action plan last year it was widely welcomed, but people wondered how it will work in practice. Today we're showing what it means, with a significant strengthening of the rules...

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Main results War in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia The Council discussed the implementation of the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia, their effectiveness (with the aim of preventing any circumvention) and their strengthening. The ministers also discussed the economic issues related to the reception of Ukrainian refugees. Ministers then welcomed Serhii Marchenko, Minister for Finance of Ukraine, who participated in his first ECOFIN meeting by video conference. The Council was able to reaffirm its full solidarity with the Ukrainian people...

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The Council today adopted legislative amendments making it possible for member states to redirect resources from cohesion policy funds and the Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprived (FEAD) to assist the refugees escaping the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. The swift amendment of the legislation on EU funds is a clear statement of the EU’s continued solidarity with the refugees from Ukraine and with the member states hosting them, in particular those sharing borders with Ukraine. This is an...

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Don’t expect easy answers or simple rules. Projecting growth, deficits, and interest rates is just the beginning When does the level of debt become unsafe? To answer this question, we need a definition of “unsafe.” I propose the following: Debt becomes unsafe when there is a non-negligible risk that, under existing and likely future policies, the ratio of debt to GDP will steadily increase, leading to default at some point. The natural way to proceed is then straightforward. The dynamics of the debt...

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Good afternoon. We have just concluded our EU-China summit. Today's summit is not business as usual, because this is a war-time summit. We are living through the gravest security crisis in Europe since World War Two. Putin's war in Ukraine continues to kill women and children and destroy entire cities, and this is a blatant violation of international law. The European Union's top priority is to stop the war as soon as possible and to protect the Ukrainian people. In...

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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitalisation of retail financial services. This report examines whether the COVID-19 pandemic changed the ways in which individuals and firms engage with innovative financial service providers and traditional financial incumbents. Its main finding is that the pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitalisation of retail financial services. Comprehensive data on market shares of FinTechs, BigTechs and incumbent financial institutions in retail digital services are scarce. However, available proxies and insights from market participants...

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