The European Commission adopted today a European Media Freedom Act, a novel set of rules to protect media pluralism and independence in the EU. The proposed Regulation includes, among others, safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions and against surveillance. It puts a focus on the independence and stable funding of public service media as well as on the transparency of media ownership and of the allocation of state advertising. It also sets out measures to protect independence of...

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Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Florian Schmidt on 15 September 2022 | Ms Schnabel, you come from Dortmund, a city of hard workers, or “Malocher” as they are referred to locally. How often do you think about these people in the context of high inflation? Many people are worried that they won’t be able to pay their energy bills. Some even struggle to pay for food at the end of the month...

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The right rules could provide a safe space for innovation Crypto assets have been around for more than a decade, but it’s only now that efforts to regulate them have moved to the top of the policy agenda. This is partly because it’s only in the past few years that crypto assets have moved from being niche products in search of a purpose to having a more mainstream presence as speculative investments, hedges against weak currencies, and potential payment instruments. The...

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Every year at this time, world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. This year, however, there will be nothing routine about this diplomatic set-piece. 77 years after the UN was created to save humanity “from the scourge of war”, Europe is once again on the front line and crises are affecting many regions. UNGA offers a unique chance for countries to come together, to work out solutions to global problems. And after two...

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It’s ironic that the only thing clear about digital dark patterns is the FTC’s commitment to protect consumers from the injury they inflict. A new FTC Staff Report sheds light on the ways that marketers can manipulate people into buying merchandise or giving up personal information through the use of dark patterns – a phrase that describes a broad range of deceptive design elements. If your business is involved in web-based commerce, the Report discusses in detail a number...

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The EU Commission is proposing an emergency intervention in Europe's energy markets to tackle recent dramatic price rises. The EU is confronted with the effects of a severe mismatch between energy demand and supply, due largely to the continued weaponisation by Russia of its energy resources. To ease the increased pressure this puts on European households and businesses, the Commission is now taking a next step in tackling this issue by proposing exceptional electricity demand reduction measures, which will...

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Billions of consumers around the world are seeing higher oil prices seep into the cost of living and wages. Filling the gas tank soon starts to cost more when crude prices climb, as does airfare, but higher energy costs also boost prices for all the products on store shelves. Workers seek higher wages to compensate for a loss in their purchasing power. These are what economists call second-round effects, and they can in turn further raise prices. If this...

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“Democratic institutions must constantly gain and regain the citizens’ trust. We must live up to the new challenges that history always puts before us. Just like Europeans did when millions of Ukrainians came knocking on their door. This is Europe at its best. A Union of determination and solidarity.” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission READ THE FULL ADDRESS WATCH THE FULL ADDRESS Charting the course for the year ahead In her State of the Union address on 14 September...

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Women and men shop differently and have different perceptions of prices and inflation. This ECB Blog post examines how inflation expectations are formed and revised across gender and why that matters for central banks. Women tend to have higher inflation expectations than men. As these differences are well documented across the world, we have used results from the ECB’s new Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) to shed light on certain factors which can explain some of the gender inflation gap. And...

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