By Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director | Launch event for “Investment Funds and Financial Stability” paper | Good morning. I am very pleased that we are joined today by some of the world’s leading voices on financial stability and investment funds. I am also very proud of our latest contribution to this policy discussion from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department. To illustrate the importance of our new report, we need to go back to the height of the crisis in...

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Today, the European Commission is launching the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. HERA will anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities. When an emergency hits, HERA will ensure the development, production and distribution of medicines, vaccines and other medical countermeasures – such as gloves and masks – that were often lacking during the first phase of the coronavirus response. HERA is...

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Europe’s economy is growing again after COVID-19 caused its worst-ever recession, helped by swift and powerful policy action by European governments and institutions to cushion the shock. Returning to pre-pandemic levels will not be enough. The crisis has raised new challenges and compounded some existing weaknesses, such as regional inequalities. Implementing reforms to boost growth potential, with macroeconomic policies supportive until the recovery is firmly established and while continuing to strengthen Europe’s economic architecture, will be key for a stronger...

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What is the Path to the Digital Decade? The Path to the Digital Decade is the Commission's proposal to support the digital transformation in Europe by 2030. This initiative will embrace the accelerating trends and growing needs of digitalisation, which were also underlined by the pandemic. The Path is based on addressing the gaps in Europe's digital capacities, while directing common actions and large-scale investments to reap the benefits brought by digitalisation. It is based on a Compass with four cardinal...

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Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted. In particular, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the United States of America were removed from the list. Non-essential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed in Annex I is...

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Today, the Commission proposed a Path to the Digital Decade, a concrete plan to achieve the digital transformation of our society and economy by 2030. The proposed Path to the Digital Decade will translate the EUʼs digital ambitions for 2030 into a concrete delivery mechanism. It will set up a governance framework based on an annual cooperation mechanism with Member States to reach the 2030 Digital Decade targets at Union level in the areas of digital skills, digital infrastructures, digitalisation of businesses and...

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Carbon pricing shows serious promise as a tool in the fight against climate change Deterring the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, fuel oil, and gasoline, is crucial to reducing the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon pricing provides across-the-board incentives to reduce energy use and shift to cleaner fuels and is an essential price signal for redirecting new investment to clean technologies. Here are five things to know about carbon pricing. 1. Carbon pricing can be readily...

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Following the launch of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) at the EU-U.S. Summit in June by U.S. President Joe Biden and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU and the U.S. are today announcing the details for its first meeting on 29 September 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will be co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai, together with European Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Margrethe Vestager, and Valdis...

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Economic situation in the euro area The director of the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), Andrea Ammon, updated the Eurogroup on the COVID-19 epidemiological situation. Ministers followed up with a discussion on the economic situation and exchanged views with the chair of the European Parliament's committee on economic and monetary affairs, Irene Tinagli. Our efforts are feeding improved euro area growth prospects that matter for the EU citizens, their jobs and their income. The decisions of the European Central Bank,...

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Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, and Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB. Frankfurt am Main, 9 September 2021 | Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference. The rebound phase in the recovery of the euro area economy is increasingly advanced. Output is expected to exceed its pre-pandemic level by the end of the year. With more than 70 per cent of European adults fully vaccinated, the economy has largely reopened, allowing consumers to spend...

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