Closer ties allowed Europe to find new natural gas sources after Russia’s supply cutoff, and growing global export capacity can reduce market fragmentation. Natural gas might be the same commodity everywhere in the world, but prices can vary dramatically because of the complex network of infrastructure needed to transport it. The result is a partially fragmented global market, mainly because most natural gas moves by pipeline—unlike the market for crude oil, which is more integrated and tends to trade at...

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How to handle China is a major political issue for the EU, one that is more complex than dealing with Russia. Certainly, the EU’s political and economic systems have profound differences with both Russia and China. Unlike Russia, China is a real systemic actor, approaching 20% of the world economy and growing while Russia represents around two percent and decreasing. The economic, political, and financial influence of China is considerable, and its military power continues to grow. Its ambition is...

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The United States and European Union are committed to working more closely on sanctions as a key tool to address shared foreign policy goals. From April 26–28, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the European External Action Service (EEAS), and the European Commission Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) concluded a multi-day technical meeting in Brussels, exchanging best practices and strengthening working relationships. The purpose of the meeting was...

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On 17 May 2023, the Commission put forward proposals for the most ambitious and comprehensive reform of the EU Customs Union since its establishment in 1968. Key features of the proposals The reform responds to the current pressures under which EU Customs operates, including a huge increase in trade volumes, especially in e-commerce, a fast-growing number of EU standards that must be checked at the border, and shifting geopolitical realities and crises. The measures proposed present a world-leading, data-driven vision for EU...

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The Council has reached agreement on its position (general approach) regarding amendments to the directive on administrative cooperation in the area of taxation. The amendments mainly concern the reporting and automatic exchange of information on revenues from transactions in crypto-assets and information on advance tax rulings for the wealthiest (high-net-worth) individuals. The aim is to strengthen the existing legislative framework by enlarging the scope for registration and reporting obligations and overall administrative cooperation of tax administrations. Today we are strengthening...

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As Emelia asked in Act V of Comedy of Errors, do “mine eyes deceive me?” Sorry to get all Shakespearean, but our eyes (and face, fingerprints, etc.) can reveal a lot of information about us – data that can be misused in deceptive or unfair ways. The FTC just issued a Policy Statement on Biometric Information and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and it’s a must-read for businesses. The increasing use of consumers’ biometric information – and...

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The European economy continues to show resilience in a challenging global context. Lower energy prices, abating supply constraints and a strong labour market supported moderate growth in the first quarter of 2023, dispelling fears of a recession. This better-than-expected start to the year lifts the growth outlook for the EU economy to 1.0% in 2023 (0.8% in the Winter interim Forecast) and 1.7% in 2024 (1.6% in the winter). Upward revisions for the euro area are of a similar...

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Once approved, they will be the world’s first rules on Artificial Intelligence MEPs include bans on biometric surveillance, emotion recognition, predictive policing AI systems Tailor-made regimes for general-purpose AI and foundation models like GPT The right to make complaints about AI systems To ensure a human-centric and ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe, MEPs endorsed new transparency and risk-management rules for AI systems. On Thursday, the Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee adopted a draft negotiating...

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A coordinated approach, including toward subsidies, is needed to tackle climate change successfully Governments across the world are using subsidies to support the green transition. Green subsidies can be helpful where there are market failures. When carbon emissions are underpriced in relation to their true cost to society or preferable policy solutions (such as carbon pricing) are not in place, subsidies can steer businesses and consumers towards clean technologies that are less polluting while also lowering the costs of those...

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