Although geopolitical risks and their effects on global production and trade are much debated, little empirical evidence has emerged of increased fragmentation in global value chains. Disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Russian war against Ukraine and increased geopolitical tensions across the board raise questions about whether we are witnessing a trend towards deglobalisation. Most analysis to date does not find evidence of significant changes in aggregate European trade patterns. Nonetheless, the ways that firms are adjusting...

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Blog post by Clémence Berson and Vasco Botelho, Senior Economists | The euro area labour market is in pretty good shape despite the recent economic shocks. The share of people in the labour force has never been higher. Who are these new workers? We find that the labour force has changed quite a bit in terms of gender, age, education level and national origin over the last two decades. But first, let’s look at more recent developments. When the pandemic...

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After having dealt successfully with the challenges of the pandemic and the energy price shock triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe faces the difficult task of restoring price stability while securing strong and green growth over the longer term. Global shifts from geoeconomic fragmentation and the current impact of climate change have introduced new economic challenges that add to long-standing growth problems and could stall convergence. Cooling headline inflation is providing some relief to households and firms. Easing commodity...

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What is Combined Transport Directive and why do we need this Directive? The Combined Transport Directive (92/106/EEC) is one of the key EU legal instruments that directly aim at reducing the negative externalities of freight transport, such as CO2 and other emissions, congestion, noise and accidents, by supporting a shift from long-distance road transport to rail, inland waterways and maritime transport. Road transport is responsible for the majority of negative externalities in transport in the EU, both because it is by...

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Blog post by Zeina Hasna, Florence Jaumotte, Jaden Kim, Samuel Pienknagura and Gregor Schwerhoff |  Making low-carbon technologies cheaper and more widely available is crucial to reducing harmful emissions. We have seen decades of progress in green innovation for mitigation and adaptation: from electric cars and clean hydrogen to renewable energy and battery storage. More recently though, momentum in green innovation has slowed. And promising technologies aren’t spreading fast enough to lower-income countries, where they can be especially helpful to...

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The EU-US Task Force on Energy Security met for the 11th time on October 31, 2023, convened by co-chairs Amos Hochstein, Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security, and Björn Seibert, Head of Cabinet of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, with the participation of Sarah Ladislaw, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Climate and Energy at the US National Security Council, and Ditte Juul Jørgensen, European Commission Director-General for Energy. The discussion focused...

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The Commission welcomes today's agreement by G7 leaders on International Guiding Principles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a voluntary Code of Conduct for AI developers under the Hiroshima AI process. These principles and the voluntary Code of Conduct will complement, at international level, the legally binding rules that the EU co-legislators are currently finalising under the EU AI Act. President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was among those who subscribed to the G7 leaders' statement issued...

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Remarks by the First Deputy Managing Director, Gita Gopinath at the Ninth IMF-WB-WTO Trade Research Conference Good morning. It is a pleasure to open the ninth IMF-World Bank-WTO Trade Research Conference. Let’s begin by taking stock of where we are. World trade growth is historically low, with no signs of improvement. In fact, it is projected to decline from 5.1 percent in 2022 to 0.9 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, the global trading system is facing several challenges: from geopolitical tensions and fragmentation, to...

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The United States and the European Union and its Member States, representing nearly 800 million citizens, united by our values and bound together by the most dynamic economic relationship on earth, reaffirm our commitment to a transatlantic partnership that delivers for all our Since the last U.S.-EU Summit in June 2021, the world has changed in unprecedented ways, and we have taken ambitious steps in response. Together, we are working to secure peace, stability, and prosperity regionally and...

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The Council has adopted a regulation to help the EU and its member states protect themselves from economic coercion by third countries. The new legislation, known as the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), is meant to serve as a deterrent for third countries targeting the EU or its member states. The aim is to use this legislation to de-escalate and induce the discontinuation of coercive measures in trade and investment through dialogue. When this is not possible, and as a last resort, the...

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