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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Following the renewed request from the European Commission on 27 January 2021, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on 27 August 2020. The Commission welcomes the company's commitment towards more transparency in its participation in the rollout of the EU Vaccines Strategy. Transparency and accountability are important to help build the trust of European citizens and to make sure that they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at the...

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Recently, some of our users have been unable to complete their fee payments with credit/debit cards due to non-compliance with the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements. To avoid this situation, we recommend that users contact their bank to ensure that their credit/debit cards meet the requirements to complete secure payments. The SCA is a requirement of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) within the European Economic Area. It is an authentication process that validates the identity of the user of a payment service or...

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In an effort to ensure timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for all EU citizens and to tackle the current lack of transparency of vaccine exports outside the EU, the Commission has today put in place a measure requiring that such exports are subject to an authorisation by Member States. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said: “The pandemic is having devastating effects in Europe and all around the world. Protecting the health of our citizens remains our utmost priority, and...

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today launches a public consultation on the revision of the Delegated Regulation regarding fees charged to CRAs. The consultation paper contains proposals which ensure that the supervisory fees charged to credit rating agencies (CRAs) reflect the costs of registration, certification and on-going supervision whilst remaining proportionate to CRAs’ turnover. ESMA’s main proposals are to charge: A single registration fee of €45,000; Annual supervisory fees of €20,000 to registered CRAs with annual revenues of between...

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Speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the LSE conference on “Financial Cycles, Risk, Macroeconomic Causes and Consequences” | Frankfurt am Main, 28 January 2021 | One year after the first cases were reported in Europe, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to take a tragic human toll and to pose enormous challenges to workers, firms, the financial system and policymakers in the euro area. Without the forceful responses of fiscal, monetary and prudential authorities the...

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Today, the European Commission and national consumer authorities released the results of a screening of websites (“sweep”), an exercise carried out each year to identify breaches of EU consumer law in online markets. This year, for the first time ever, the sweep focused on ‘greenwashing', the practice by which companies claim they are doing more for the environment than they actually are. The “sweep” analysed green online claims from various business sectors such as garments, cosmetics and household equipment....

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“The vaccines are here!”—the cry heard and welcomed the world over—has boosted hopes of a global economic recovery in 2021. Yet until vaccines are widely available, the market rally and the economic recovery rest on continued monetary and fiscal policy support. 'While there is for now no alternative to continued monetary policy support, there are legitimate concerns around excessive risk-taking and market exuberance.' Financial stability risks have been in check so far, but we cannot take this for granted. Prices for stocks, corporate bonds,...

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Eurogroup | Statements and remarks by Paschal Donohoe | 27 January 2021 | Today, we mark an important milestone in the further development of the Economic and Monetary Union, which will strengthen euro area's crisis prevention and resolution capabilities as well as the Banking Union. We also demonstrate our unity of purpose to deliver progress on important issues for the benefit of all our citizens. Representatives from the Member States have signed the amending agreements to the Treaty on the European...

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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 for which travel restrictions should be lifted. As stipulated in the Council recommendation, this list will continue to be reviewed every two weeks and, as the case may be, updated. Based on the criteria and conditions set out in the recommendation, as from 28 January member states should gradually lift the travel restrictions at...

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