The Commission presented today its SAMIRA Action Plan – the Strategic Agenda for Medical Ionising Radiation Applications. The Plan will improve EU coordination, ensure that radiological and nuclear technologies continue to benefit the health of EU citizens, and contribute to the fight against cancer and other diseases. This Action Plan is the first follow-up to Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, adopted by the Commission on 3 February. Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, said: “The current pandemic has reminded us all of the importance of health and the need to...

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This article is part of a series in which OECD experts and thought leaders — from around the world and all parts of society — address the COVID-19 crisis, discussing and developing solutions now and for the future. | Originally delivered as a speech by Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, to open the 11th Meeting of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS, which took place on 27-28 January 2021. | Looking back at the past 15 years, the OECD’s efforts to transform the international landscape stand out as...

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Eurosystem agrees on common stance for climate change-related sustainable and responsible investment principles for euro-denominated non-monetary policy portfolios Common stance promotes disclosures and understanding of climate-related risks Eurosystem aims to start climate-related disclosures for these types of portfolios within two years The Eurosystem central banks – the 19 national central banks of the euro area countries and the European Central Bank (ECB) – have defined a common stance for applying sustainable and responsible investment principles in the euro-denominated non-monetary...

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Find out about the EU’s circular economy action plan and what additional measures MEPs want to reduce waste and make products more sustainable. If we keep on exploiting resources as we do now, by 2050 we would need the resources of three Earths. Finite resources and climate issues require moving from a ‘take-make-dispose’ society to a carbon-neutral, environmentally sustainable, toxic-free and fully circular economy by 2050. The current crisis highlighted weaknesses in resource and value chains, hitting SMEs and industry. A circular economy will cut...

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Euro area countries have relied extensively on fiscal policy to counter the harmful impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on their economies. They have implemented a broad range of measures, some with an immediate budgetary impact and others, such as liquidity measures, which, in principle, are not expected to cause an immediate deterioration in the fiscal outlook. Since all euro area countries were hit by the economic shock largely through the same channels, their fiscal responses in the early...

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The European Commission has disbursed €14 billion to nine Member States in the fourth instalment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument. This is the first disbursement in 2021. As part of today's operations, Belgium has received €2 billion, Cyprus €229 million, Hungary €304 million, Latvia €72 million, Poland €4.28 billion, Slovenia €913 million, Spain €1.03 billion, Greece €728 million and Italy €4.45 billion. All nine Member States had already received financial support under SURE in...

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Many countries entered the pandemic with elevated debt levels. Our new update of the IMF’s Global Debt Database shows that global debt—public plus private—reached $197 trillion in 2019, up by $9 trillion from the previous year. This substantial debt created challenges for countries that faced a debt surge in 2020, as economic activity collapsed and governments acted swiftly to provide support during the pandemic. Higher debt can potentially reduce the ability of governments to react to the COVID-19 crisis. Our data show that...

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Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Klemens Kindermann on 29 January 2021 and published on 31 January 2021 | Perhaps a question of general interest to start off with: how is the ECB operating during the coronavirus pandemic? Is everyone working from home? The ECB put some comprehensive measures in place very early on. And this means that the vast majority of our people have been working from home for many months now....

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Interview with Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Markus Zydra on 26 January and published on 1 February 2021 as a shortened version in Süddeutsche Zeitung | Mr Lane, the ECB aspires to be closer to the people. Distributing helicopter money would be a good way to go about that. Why does the ECB prefer to channel its support to banks rather than directly to citizens? Is this a taboo topic? Of course we...

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