Report to the Board of Executive Directors WASHINGTON, September 16, 2021—The World Bank Group today released the following statement on behalf of the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors: “The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today authorized the release of “Investigation of Data Irregularities in Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 – Investigation Findings and Report to the Board of Executive Directors,” an independent external review of the facts and circumstances around previously reported data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 Doing...

By Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director | Launch event for “Investment Funds and Financial Stability” paper | Good morning. I am very pleased that we are joined today by some of the world’s leading voices on financial stability and investment funds. I am also very proud of our latest contribution to this policy discussion from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department. To illustrate the importance of our new report, we need to go back to the height of the crisis in...

Today, the European Commission is launching the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. HERA will anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities. When an emergency hits, HERA will ensure the development, production and distribution of medicines, vaccines and other medical countermeasures – such as gloves and masks – that were often lacking during the first phase of the coronavirus response. HERA is...

Europe’s economy is growing again after COVID-19 caused its worst-ever recession, helped by swift and powerful policy action by European governments and institutions to cushion the shock. Returning to pre-pandemic levels will not be enough. The crisis has raised new challenges and compounded some existing weaknesses, such as regional inequalities. Implementing reforms to boost growth potential, with macroeconomic policies supportive until the recovery is firmly established and while continuing to strengthen Europe’s economic architecture, will be key for a stronger...

What is the Path to the Digital Decade? The Path to the Digital Decade is the Commission's proposal to support the digital transformation in Europe by 2030. This initiative will embrace the accelerating trends and growing needs of digitalisation, which were also underlined by the pandemic. The Path is based on addressing the gaps in Europe's digital capacities, while directing common actions and large-scale investments to reap the benefits brought by digitalisation. It is based on a Compass with four cardinal...

Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted. In particular, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the United States of America were removed from the list. Non-essential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed in Annex I is...

Today, the Commission proposed a Path to the Digital Decade, a concrete plan to achieve the digital transformation of our society and economy by 2030. The proposed Path to the Digital Decade will translate the EUʼs digital ambitions for 2030 into a concrete delivery mechanism. It will set up a governance framework based on an annual cooperation mechanism with Member States to reach the 2030 Digital Decade targets at Union level in the areas of digital skills, digital infrastructures, digitalisation of businesses and...

Carbon pricing shows serious promise as a tool in the fight against climate change Deterring the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, fuel oil, and gasoline, is crucial to reducing the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon pricing provides across-the-board incentives to reduce energy use and shift to cleaner fuels and is an essential price signal for redirecting new investment to clean technologies. Here are five things to know about carbon pricing. 1. Carbon pricing can be readily...