Today, the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. The proposal aims to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour throughout global value chains. Companies play a key role in building a sustainable economy and society. They will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate adverse impacts of their activities on human rights, such as child labour and exploitation of workers, and on the environment, for example pollution and...

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'In exceptional times, monetary finance may provide helpful policy support but there are risks.' The severe economic challenges posed by the global financial crisis, and more recently the pandemic, sparked a debate on whether central banks should expand their unconventional monetary policy toolkit to include monetary finance—the financing of government via money creation. Monetary finance is often associated with Milton Friedman’s metaphor of a helicopter dropping money from the sky. Reflecting on the role of monetary policy during the Great...

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"Check against delivery" Good morning. It is a pleasure for me to take part in this joint ECFIN-EESC conference on the way forward for the EU's economic governance framework. This event forms part of our effort to engage in a wide-ranging and inclusive debate on the economic governance review with all stakeholders. We have taken good note of the very useful European Parliament resolution of July 2021 that Ms Marques coordinated. We have also paid close attention to the own-initiative opinion of the...

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European security situation The Foreign Affairs Council discussed on the European security situation. The Council condemned the Russian military build-up around Ukraine, increased ceasefire violations and provocations from the Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It also condemned actions, staged events and information manipulations aimed at creating a pretext for military escalation against Ukraine. Furthermore, it commended Ukraine’s restraint in the face of intimidation and violations of the Minsk agreements and international law. During their discussion, ministers had the opportunity to informally exchange views...

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The world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with the bulk of it ending up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment, and only 9% successfully recycled, according to a new OECD report. Ahead of UN talks on international action to reduce plastic waste, the OECD’s first Global Plastics Outlook shows that as rising populations and incomes drive a relentless increase in the amount of plastic being used and thrown away, policies to curb...

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Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, Industry outreach on the thematic review on climate-related and environmental risks| Frankfurt am Main, 18 February 2022 | Welcome to this industry outreach event organised by ECB Banking Supervision on the management and supervision of climate-related and environmental risks, or C&E risks for short. Our focus today is the current state of C&E risk management practices in the...

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Opening remarks by Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at MNI Market News Webcast | Frankfurt am Main, 17 February 2022 | In these brief opening remarks, I wish to discuss the forces shaping near-term and medium-term inflation dynamics. On near-term inflation, I emphasised in a blog post last week that the current high inflation rates have been largely shaped by a pandemic cycle that has generated global bottlenecks for manufactured goods over the last year...

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'With supply constraints likely to persist, the challenge for policymakers is to support recovery without allowing high inflation to become entrenched.' When countries asked people to stay at home to control COVID-19, consumers cut spending on services and bought more manufactured goods instead. The reopening of economies boosted manufacturing output, but renewed lockdowns and shortages of intermediate inputs from chemicals to microchips caused the factory recovery to stall. Prices of core consumer goods rose rapidly as delivery times reached...

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Today, the Commission is announcing an investment of over €110 million into LIFE programme integrated projects for environmental and climate protection, selected after a call for proposals covering the year 2020. The funding will support new major environmental and climate projects in 11 EU countries - Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The projects contribute to a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and support the European Green Deal's objectives of making...

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By Kristalina Georgieva | 'We must work together to end the pandemic, navigate monetary tightening and shift focus to fiscal sustainability.' When the Group of Twenty finance ministers and central bank governors gather in Jakarta, in person and virtually, this week, they can take inspiration from the Indonesian phrase, gotong royong, “working together to achieve a common goal. This spirit is more important than ever as countries are facing a tough obstacle course this year. The good news is that the ...

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