The Council adopted today a regulation on financial benchmarks with the aim of reducing red tape for EU companies, particularly SMEs. Benchmarks are widely used by companies and investors in the EU as references in their financial instruments or contracts. This legislation amends a regulation from 2016 regarding the scope of the rules for benchmarks, the use of benchmarks provided by administrators located in third countries, and certain reporting requirements. Main elements of the amended benchmarks regulation Reduced regulatory burden on administrators of benchmarks...

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AI adoption requires enormous amounts of electricity. And so does greening the economy. Are the digital and green transitions clashing or can they be successfully achieved together? The ECB Blog takes a closer look. This post is part of a miniseries related to the ECB conference “The Transformative Power of AI”, on 1-2 April 2025, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Learn more here. Two of the biggest economic challenges Europe faces are the digital and the green transitions. The former seeks...

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EU leaders discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, competitiveness, European defence, the next MFF, migration, oceans, multilateralism and the Western Balkans. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, was invited to a working lunch. A Euro Summit in inclusive format was held on the margins of the meeting. European Council conclusions, 20 March 2025 Remarks by President António Costa at the press conference following the European Council meeting of 20 March 2025 Euro Summit, 20 March 2025 The text on Ukraine was firmly supported by 26...

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The European Commission has adopted its strategy for the savings and investments union (SIU), a key initiative to improve the way the EU financial system channels savings to productive investments. It seeks to offer EU citizens broader access to capital markets and better financing options for companies. This can foster citizens’ wealth, while boosting EU economic growth and competitiveness. The savings and investments union is a horizontal enabler that will create a financing ecosystem to benefit investments in the EU’s strategic objectives. As highlighted in...

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Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released the seventh edition of the Integrated Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM7, the Manual) (https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Data/Statistics/BPM6/draft-bpm7-wcv.ashx). This new edition provides updated global standards for compiling external sector statistics, including balance of payments and integrated international investment position. It highlights key changes in the global economy, such as the increasing economic interconnectedness, digitalization, and innovations in financial markets since the time of the last update of the manual in 2009. The launch of BPM7 marks the...

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III. COMPETITIVENESS  11. A more competitive Union will be a stronger Union, better able to protect its citizens, its values and its interests on the global stage while sustaining its prosperity and the European social model. The need to invest in our defence and our competitiveness are closely interlinked. The European Council underlines the urgent need to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, building on the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal and on its conclusions of 6 March 2025 on...

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By António Dias da Silva and Marco Weissler | AI is already part of many workers’ daily routines. Some fear losing their jobs, but most don’t. The ECB Blog looks at how workers are using AI tools, how they feel about it and what that means for work in the future. This post is part of a miniseries related to the ECB conference “The Transformative Power of AI”, on 1-2 April 2025, bringing together researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Learn more here. The...

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Prepared by Malin Andersson, Valerie Jarvis and Michel Soudan | Business investment in the euro area has grown less dynamically – and its outlook remains less favourable – than in the United States. In the post-pandemic period between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the fourth quarter of 2024, business investment grew by 15.4% in the United States – more than double the 6.8% cumulative increase over this period in the euro area (Chart A). Across components, intangible investment – i.e. intellectual...

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