The European Commission has today put forward two proposals to ensure that citizens and businesses can continue to access and pay with euro banknotes and coins across the euro area, and to set out a framework for a possible new digital form of the euro that the European Central Bank may issue in the future, as a complement to cash. The euro continues to be a symbol of Europe's unity and strength. Across the euro area and beyond, for more...

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The digital euro is a necessary step to ensure that our monetary system keeps up with digital advances. It will be widely accessible and easy to use while preserving privacy – just like cash. Our world is changing. Digitalisation has transformed society in ways that would have been difficult to imagine only ten years ago. It is also changing how we make payments: people increasingly want to pay digitally. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this shift. Central banks around the world...

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Financial institutions rely on third-party service providers for a range of services, some of which support their critical operations. These third-party dependencies have grown in recent years as part of the digitalisation of the financial services sector and can bring multiple benefits to financial institutions including flexibility, innovation and improved operational resilience. However, if not properly managed, disruption to critical services or service providers could pose risks to financial institutions and, in some cases, financial stability. In response to concerns over...

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The Council adopted today an eleventh package of economic and individual restrictive measures intended to strengthen existing EU sanctions and crack down on their circumvention, thereby further eroding Putin's war machine and his revenues. Our sanctions are already taking a heavy toll on the Russian economy and on the Kremlin’s ability to finance its aggression. Today’s package increases our pressure on Russia and Putin’s war machine. By tackling sanctions circumvention, we will maximise pressure on Russia by depriving it further...

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Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Summit for a new global financing pact in Paris | Paris, 23 June 2023 | I am truly honoured to be with you here today at this important summit to address the most pressing issue of our time. Eight years ago in Paris, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the COP21 by stating that “Paris must mark a turning point ” towards limiting global warming to 1.5 °Celsius. Today, the window of opportunity...

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13 June 2023 | Today, the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) Pillar Knowledge Sharing Network held its first virtual meeting of what will be a series of peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing events where experts from tax administrations in 'early implementer' jurisdictions will offer high-level practical advice and share lessons learned on administrative and implementation aspects of the Two-Pillar Solution. The first meeting, gathering more than 250 delegates from over 70 countries and jurisdictions, looked at Pillar Two implementation from a change management perspective...

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21 June 2023 | Euro remains second most widely used currency, amid geopolitical risks and high inflation Euro’s share at around 20% across various indicators of international currency use Euro’s global appeal linked to stronger Economic and Monetary Union The international role of the euro was resilient in 2022, with its share across various indicators of international currency use averaging close to 20%. This was one of the main findings in the annual review of the international role of the...

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The European Union (EU) has faced a series of unprecedented and unexpected challenges since the adoption of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) in 2020. Barely out of one of the deepest global economic crises in more than a century, Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine had huge humanitarian, economic and budgetary consequences. Migration has picked up after the pandemic, putting strains on Member States' reception and integration capacities. Under the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Union and the Member...

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Digitalisation has boosted some European firms’ productivity, but many are still on the digital sidelines. That is a pity as faster digital adoption could make our economies much more productive. This ECB Blog post looks at where and how digitalisation can be a gamechanger. Digitalisation promised to be a productivity gamechanger, yet we are still facing a “productivity paradox” at the aggregate level. For decades, rapid advances in digitalisation have coincided with a protracted slowdown in aggregate productivity growth. But...

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