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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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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