The Council reached agreement on the position of member states (the so-called ‘general approach’) on the directive on value added tax (VAT) rules for distance sales of imported goods and import VAT. The directive seeks to improve the collection of VAT on imported goods by making suppliers liable for the VAT paid on imports, which is likely to encourage them to use the VAT import one-stop-shop (IOSS). VAT collection on imports through the import one-stop-shop is beneficial to the member states’...

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By Christian Bogmans, Patricia Gomez-Gonzalez, Giovanni Melina, Sneha Thube The power-hungry technology requires policies to help expand electricity supplies, incentivize alternative sources, and help contain price surges Artificial intelligence is an emerging source of productivity and economic growth that’s also reshaping employment and investment. AI has the potential to raise the average pace of annual global economic growth according to scenarios in our recent analysis, included in the IMF’s April 2025 World Economic Outlook. AI, however, needs more and more electricity for the data centers that make...

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Speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at Hoover Monetary Policy Conference “Finishing the Job and New Challenges”, Stanford University Standard theory of monetary policy rests on a simple premise: a stable relationship between inflation and the output gap. This is the logic behind the Phillips curve, which, in its most common form, relates inflation to a measure of economic slack, expected inflation and supply shocks. The relationship between output and inflation was already under scrutiny...

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New OECD data shows export restrictions for critical raw materials are becoming increasingly widespread as demand surges, driven by the green and digital transitions and rising concerns over economic security. The OECD Inventory of Export Restrictions on Industrial Raw Materials offers key insights for policymakers and stakeholders to help identify less restrictive ways to meet both the security of supply needs of importing countries and the development goals of resource-rich nations. It provides annually updated data on the scope, type, and evolution...

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Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, is opening today the second edition of the InvestEU High-Level Event in Brussels. The event provides an outlook on the contribution of InvestEU to Europe's competitiveness, the flexibility offered by the instrument in de-risking and attracting private investments, as well as the role that InvestEU can play in the future MFF and the European Competitiveness Fund. The programme highlights InvestEU's growing impact across key areas such as innovation, decarbonisation and the social sector. It...

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The European Commission has launched a public consultation on a list of US imports which could become subject to EU countermeasures, if ongoing EU-US negotiations do not result in a mutually beneficial outcome and the removal of the US tariffs. The list put to consultation concerns imports from the US worth €95 billion, covering a broad range of industrial and agricultural products. The Commission is also consulting on possible restrictions on certain EU exports of steel scrap and chemical products to the US worth €4.4 billion....

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