The European Commission has today adopted an independently evaluated Green Bond framework, thus taking a step forward towards the issuance of up to €250 billion green bonds, or 30% of NextGenerationEU's total issuance. The framework provides investors in these bonds with confidence that the funds mobilised will be allocated to green projects and that the Commission will report on its environmental impact. Now that the framework has been adopted, the Commission will soon proceed with the first green bond issuance...

Read more

The Commission has today adopted its second annual Strategic Foresight Report – “The EU's capacity and freedom to act”*. This Communication presents a forward-looking and multidisciplinary perspective on the EU's open strategic autonomy in an increasingly multipolar and contested global order. The Commission has identified four main global trends, affecting the EU's capacity and freedom to act: climate change and other environmental challenges; digital hyperconnectivity and technological transformation; pressure on democracy and values; and shifts in the global order and...

Read more

Keynote speech by President Charles Michel at the Tallinn Digital Summit | Thank you for your invitation. It's both a pleasure and a challenge to speak to you today. When it comes to digital, Estonia stands at the vanguard in Europe. And this Tallinn Digital Summit is the place to be. Estonia is geographically on the periphery of the EU, but you have positioned yourself at the very heart of our Digital Revolution. Today I’d like to outline the role that...

Read more

Contribution by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, to the International Monetary Fund’s magazine Finance and Development | Central banks must do their part in fighting global warming The devastating effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident. Temperature records are being shattered again this year—in Canada, the United States, arctic Russia and central Asia. Globally, the past six years have been the hottest six on record, and temperatures in 2020 exceeded the 1850-1900 average by 1.25°C (2.25°F). Exactly how...

Read more

Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Miquel Roig and Jorge Zuloaga on 26 August and published on 1 September 2021 | You are almost halfway through your term as Vice-President of the ECB. How would you assess your term so far, and what aims do you have for the second half? These three years have been extremely interesting, and they have been marked, above all else, by the pandemic – an extraordinary event that has sparked...

Read more

To help EU consumers cut their energy bills and carbon footprint, a brand new version of the widely-recognised EU energy label for light bulbs and other lighting products will be applicable in all shops and online retail outlets from Wednesday, 1 September 2021. The move follows the considerable improvement in energy efficiency in this sector in recent years, which has meant that more and more “light sources” (such as light bulbs and LED modules) have achieved label ratings of...

Read more

The system for protecting EU businesses from dumped and subsidised imports continued to function well in 2020 thanks to the EU's robust and innovative ways of using trade defence instruments (TDI), despite the practical challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of the European Commission's new trade strategy, whereby the EU takes a more assertive stance in defending its interests against unfair trade practices. Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said: “The EU needs effective tools to defend ourselves...

Read more

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Carla Neuhaus on 17 August and published on 20 August 2021 | Ms Schnabel, do you see the images of the catastrophic floods in Germany or the forest fires in Greece as a sign that the ECB should also do something to counter climate change? For me, the latest events have confirmed that we are doing the right thing with our new strategy. Only recently we decided...

Read more