Today, the European Commission adopted the 2025-2030 working plan for the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Energy Labelling Regulation. The plan provides a list of products that should be prioritised to introduce ecodesign requirements and energy labelling over the next five years. This will foster sustainable, repairable, circular and energy efficient products across Europe,  in line with the Clean Industrial Deal and the Competitiveness Compass. The priority products for ecodesign and energy labelling requirements are steel and aluminium, textiles (with a focus on apparel), furniture, tyres and mattresses. These...

NEW YORK—The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data today released the March 2025 Survey of Consumer Expectations, which shows that households’ inflation expectations increased at the short-term horizon, remained unchanged at the medium-term horizon, and ticked down at the longer-term horizon. Unemployment, job loss, and earnings growth expectations deteriorated. Household income growth expectations declined. Households were also more pessimistic about their year-ahead financial situations and credit access. Stock price expectations declined and reached the lowest level...

Firms reported declining interest rates on bank loans, while indicating a slight further tightening of other lending conditions. The bank loan financing gap remained almost unchanged, with firms reporting a reduced need for such loans alongside a slight decrease in availability. Firms’ one-year-ahead median inflation expectations decreased slightly to 2.9%, down from 3%, while median inflation expectations three and five years ahead remained unchanged at 3.0%. In the most recent round of the Survey on the Access to Finance...

Blog post by: Salih Fendoglu, Mahvash S. Qureshi, Felix Suntheim | Heightened tensions can hurt stock markets, raise government borrowing costs, and pose risks to financial stability Global geopolitical risks remain elevated, raising concerns about their potential impact on economic and financial stability. Shocks such as wars, diplomatic tensions, or terrorism can disrupt cross-border trade and investment. This can hurt asset prices, affect financial institutions, and curtail lending to the private sector, weighing on economic activity and posing a threat to financial stability. Such risks...

The Cybersecurity Act strengthens the EU Agency for cybersecurity (ENISA) and establishes a cybersecurity certification framework for products and services. A new mandate for ENISA ENISA, the EU Agency for cybersecurity, is now stronger. The EU Cybersecurity Act grants a permanent mandate to the agency, and gives it more resources and new tasks. ENISA will have a key role in setting up and maintaining the European cybersecurity certification framework by preparing the technical ground for specific certification schemes. It will be in charge of informing the public on the...

To become a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) is the objective of the AI Continent Action Plan launched today. As set out by President von der Leyen at the AI Action Summit in February 2025 in Paris, this ambitious initiative is set to transform Europe's strong traditional industries and its exceptional talent pool into powerful engines of AI innovation and acceleration. The race for leadership in AI is far from over. From cutting-edge foundation models to specialised AI applications, the AI landscape in...