The European Commission has adopted a Communication on a competition policy fit for new challenges, which frames the important role of competition policy for Europe's path towards recovery, the green and digital transitions, and for a resilient Single Market. The Communication highlights the in-built ability of competition policy to adapt to new market circumstances, policy priorities and customer needs: for example, today, the Commission has adopted the sixth amendment of the State aid Temporary Framework to enable Member States to provide targeted support...

Read more

Careful calibration of spending and tax policies can reduce inequality caused by automation. For many observers, automation has been responsible for both strong economic growth and rising inequality in many countries in recent decades. Automation raises productivity, but it can exacerbate inequality. This is because it replaces low-skilled workers and helps owners of capital earn bigger monopoly rents. And with the advent of next-level automation in the form of robots, the challenge is more pressing than ever. 'Fiscal policy instruments can reduce...

Read more

Introductory remarks by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the ECON Committee of the European Parliament | Madam Chair, honourable members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Thank you for inviting me to report on the investigation phase of the digital euro project, which we started in October. I am happy to finally meet at least some of you in person, once again. Our interactions started a year ago when we published the Eurosystem...

Read more

Speech by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB at the 24th Euro Finance Week | Frankfurt am Main, 15 November 2021 | Good evening to you all. I am honoured to take part in the 24th Euro Finance Week. Since I joined the ECB in 2018, we have been gathering at this event every year to discuss the recent financial and economic developments in the euro area and beyond. As we are going to publish our Financial Stability Review...

Read more

Chair, honourable members, Before going to the Trade and Technology Council itself, let me first zoom out and outline why the year 2021 has been a landmark year for transatlantic relations. We have successfully pressed the reset button with the Biden administration. After the grounding of the Airbus-Boeing dispute at the EU-U.S. Summit in June, we also agreed to hit the pause button on the steel and aluminium trade dispute. Our agreement includes starting discussions on a new Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel...

Read more

Today, the Commission published the results of the 2021 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which tracks the progress made in EU Member States in digital competitiveness in the areas of human capital, broadband connectivity, the integration of digital technologies by businesses and digital public services. The DESI 2021 reports present data from the first or second quarter of 2020 for the most part, providing some insight into key developments in the digital economy and society during the first year of...

Read more

One of the many figures in a new report released today by the European Commission shows just how important an open trade policy is for European employment. The Trade and Jobs Report provides a host of statistics on European jobs connected to European trade. The report provides data over time at both European and Member State level, and gives statistics by industry, skill level, gender etc. For example, it shows that over 38 million jobs in the EU are supported by EU...

Read more

The Council of the European Union: NOTES that in 2020, the framework for the annual coordination of economic, fiscal and employment policies across the European Union known as the European Semester was temporarily adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic towards addressing the negative health and socio-economic consequences. New economic circumstances and the European response to the COVID-19 crisis caused a temporary adjustment of the European Semester also in 2021 with policy guidance focusing solely on fiscal policies, as the...

Read more

Economic governance and recovery Ministers exchanged views on the EU economy following the COVID-19 pandemic, and on the implications of recent developments for economic governance. They discussed the future of the EU’s economic governance framework and gave their initial views on the way forward. This topic will be discussed further and ministers will continue their consultations in order to reach a broad consensus in due course. Our efforts on boosting the economic recovery are taking effect. The EU’s response to the pandemic is...

Read more