By Petra Köhler-Ulbrich, Yuma Schuster and Nikoleta Tushteva Banks consider the climate performance of firms and buildings in their lending policies. The euro area bank lending survey shows that lower climate risks tend to improve credit conditions. Meanwhile, green investments increase loan demand from firms and households. Reducing a firm’s carbon emissions or improving the energy efficiency of a building can help businesses and households to get a loan from the bank at more favourable conditions, the euro area bank lending survey (BLS)...

The Council and the European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement on measures to incentivise defence-related investments in the current EU budget to implement the so-called ReArm Europe plan, an EU initiative to increase defence spending and strengthen the EU’s military capabilities. The agreement includes a landmark decision to associate Ukraine to the European Defence Fund, underscoring the EU’s enduring commitment to Ukraine’s security, resilience, and gradual integration into the European defence industrial base. “The agreement reached today on incentivising defence-related investments in...

By Anamaria Piloiu, Oleg Reichmann and Florian Resch Climate risks affect credit ratings. And these, in turn, influence how banks can use securities as collateral to borrow money. This post takes a closer look at how the Eurosystem integrates climate change risks into its own collateral framework, through the credit risk channel. Central banks must prepare for the financial risks that come with rising temperatures and fast-evolving green policies. In the Eurosystem, we are actively working to ensure that the euro...

Today, the Commission has published the State of the Energy Union Report 2025 and the accompanying Climate Action Progress Report 2025. They show the significant strides the EU has made in transitioning to a robust and integrated Energy Union by progressing on the clean energy transition with more renewables, addressing high and volatile energy prices and affordability, and further reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is increasing competitiveness, decarbonisation and strengthen energy security and independence reducing EU's reliance on imported fossil fuels. The reports confirm once again that the EU...

Abstract: Motivated by current events, this paper assesses the impact of tariff increases on bilateral greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) over the period 2016-2023. Leveraging a comprehensive dataset of announced greenfield investment projects, official FDI statistics, and bilateral product-level tariff data, we estimate a series of gravity equations to uncover key relationships. Our results show that, at an aggregate level, tariff increases are associated with a rise in greenfield FDI, consistent with the tariff-jumping hypothesis. However, this positive effect reverses...

The European Commission today adopted a comprehensive transport package. It will accelerate the roll-out of Europe's high-speed rail network and to boost investment in renewable and low-carbon fuels for the aviation and waterborne sectors. Competitiveness and sustainability are the guiding principles of this package, which aims to make the EU transport system more efficient, interconnected, accessible, clean and resilient. The measures presented today cover two key areas – rail, where Europe already leads on sustainability, and fuels, where Europe must...

Today, the Council has reached an agreement on amending the European climate law (ECL), introducing a binding intermediate climate target for 2040 of a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, compared to 1990 levels. This new target is a crucial step towards the EU’s long-term goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The amendment also sets out some areas of flexibility and key elements for the 2040 target and for the post-2030 climate framework. These will steer the Commission’s future legislative proposals to...

Speech by Alfred Kammer, Director, IMF European Department, at the House of the Euro, Brussels Thank you, , for the kind welcome and the ECB for hosting us again here in Brussels at the House of the Euro. The year 2025 marked a period of profound transformation in the global economy, driven by a reconfiguration of trade policies. For Europe, these developments follow a series of crises—from the pandemic, to Russia’s invasions of Ukraine—that have tested the region’s resilience. Timely policy action has helped avoid the worst, and...