INTRODUCTION – DELIVER TODAY, PREPARE FOR TOMORROW Honourable Members, In just under 300 days, Europeans will take to the polls in our unique and remarkable democracy. As with any election, it will be a time for people to reflect on the State of our Union and the work done by those that represent them. But it will also be a time to decide on what kind of future and what kind of Europe they want. Among them will be millions of first-time...

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Agenda highlights The high-level week of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly starts on 18 September 2023. The first day of the general debate will be on Tuesday, 19 September. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, will address the General Assembly on behalf of the EU and will participate in a series of side events. EU priorities at the 78th UN General Assembly Every year, the Council adopts priorities for the UN and the UN General Assembly, which guide the...

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The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) – a joint initiative of the IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank Group – released a new report on carbon metrics of its partners. The report aims to help policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders strengthen their understanding of different carbon pricing metrics of the four largest international organizations. Carbon pricing has emerged as the policy strategy to monetize the cost of the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, such as the...

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European Central Bank | 6 September 2023 Frontloading green investment significantly reduces medium-term costs and risks facing households and firms Not expediting green transition drags down firms’ profitability and households’ purchasing power while pushing up credit risk for banks Further delaying transition means missing Paris Agreement goals and exacerbating impact of costly physical risks The European Central Bank (ECB) today published the results of its second economy-wide climate stress test. The results show that the best way to achieve a...

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Digitalization, done right, can equip governments to improve revenue collection and spending efficiency. International Monetary Fund - September 7, 2023 Digitalization is a transformative force as powerful as the advent of the printing press in the 15th century or electricity in the 19th. Yet some governments have been slow to harness the potential of digital technology to improve delivery of public services and strengthen public finance. A two-pronged policy approach is required—connecting unconnected households to the internet and accelerating and strengthening the...

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Policy brief by John Springford , Sander Tordoir | Published 12 June 2023. CER study raises concerns about wasteful European subsidies, as shipping costs increasingly discourage imports from faraway countries European policy-makers are worried about losing out to subsidised production in the US and China in the booming global market for green technologies. A new CER policy brief, ‘Europe can withstand American and Chinese subsidies for green tech’, shows that the EU can be competitive in green goods and should use...

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Blog post by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank | Moving towards carbon neutrality as quickly and boldly as possible is by far the best way to slow down climate change. It may take more effort in the short run, but in the long run it will cost less overall, says ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos. We need to reach carbon neutrality to avoid existential risks to nature, people and our economies. And we need to...

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Blog post by Fabio Panetta, Member of the ECB's Executive Board | With rising geopolitical tensions and urgent global challenges such as the climate and digital transitions, Europe needs to bolster its resilience to shocks and invest strategically. In order to achieve this, we need to work together, as a more integrated Europe is better positioned to realize shared goals in a fragmented global economy. Central to this strategy is the creation of an integrated European capital market — a...

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Recent years have seen growing interest in differences between labour and capital income taxation. New stylised effective tax rates show that governments almost always tax the capital income individuals receive more favourably than wage income. But that is only part of the story, because governments also usually tax labour and capital income at the firm level. After accounting for firm-level taxes, capital is still taxed more favourably than labour in many OECD countries, but in others, the reverse is true. Interest...

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Blog post by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the EU has imposed 11 rounds of ever-tighter sanctions against Russia. Some people claim these sanctions have not worked. This is simply not true. Within a year, they have already limited Moscow’s options considerably causing financial strain, cutting the country from key markets and significantly degrading Russia’s industrial and...

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