MEPs approved the EU’s key instrument to help countries recover from Covid-19, debated the vaccines situation and called for tighter recycling rules. Covid recovery On Tuesday, MEPs approved the Recovery and Resilience Facility, designed to help EU countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of Covid-19 on young people and sport MEPs called on the Commission and EU countries to do more to prevent the pandemic affecting young people and the sports sector in a report adopted on Wednesday. Vaccinations In a debate on Wednesday, MEPs said...

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Paris, 11 February 2021 | Speech by François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France | I would like to welcome you to the Banque de France for this 5th edition of the Rencontres on "Climate Change and Sustainable Finance", organised jointly with Option Finance. Central banks’ commitment to the climate cause may seem obvious today, and this despite the urgency of addressing the Covid pandemic.  But it was not the case five years ago, and few issues...

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Europe remains in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The resurgence in the number of cases, together with the appearance of new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus, have forced many Member States to reintroduce or tighten containment measures. At the same time, the start of vaccination programmes throughout the EU provides grounds for cautious optimism. Economic growth poised to recover as containment measures ease The Winter 2021 Economic Forecast projects that the euro area economy will grow by 3.8% in both 2021...

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The ability to renew your passport or driver’s license, pay a tax bill, or access government data with the click of a button or swipe of a screen, anytime and anywhere, has grown more important during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the virus. Beyond the obvious efficiency and transparency gains that digital government services provide, “e-government” can actually make an economy more attractive to foreign investors. Recent IMF staff research has linked―for the first time―the accessibility of government information and...

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Biggest building block of the Next Generation EU stimulus package €672.5 billion in grants and loans to curb the effects of the pandemic Funds will support key policy areas such as green transition, digital transformation, crisis preparedness as well as children and youth Respect for rule of law and the EU’s fundamental values a prerequisite to receive funding On Wednesday, Parliament approved the Recovery and Resilience Facility, designed to help EU countries tackle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The...

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The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the second extension of a rule to bolster the effectiveness of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Like the earlier extensions, this one will temporarily modify the Board's rules so that certain bank directors and shareholders can apply to their banks for PPP loans for their small businesses. To prevent favoritism, the Board limits the types and quantity of loans that bank directors, shareholders, officers, and businesses owned by these...

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