The first estimate for euro area (EA19) exports of goods to the rest of the world in September 2015 was €173.4 billion, an increase of 1% compared with September 2014 (€171.8 bn). Imports from the rest of the world stood at €152.8 bn, a fall of 1% compared with September 2014 (€154.4 bn). As a result, the euro area recorded a €20.5 bn surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in September 2015, compared with +€17.4 bn in September 2014. Intra-euro...

Speech by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the European Financial Forum dinner, 2015 Cumberland Lodge Financial Services Summit, Cumberland Lodge, 12 November 2015 Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you this evening. I have been asked to give a “central bankers’ view” on the various issues being discussed at this conference, so let me lay out upfront the perspective I will be coming from. While I am indifferent to how structural changes...

The EU economy is showing resilience in the face of external circumstances, but the European Central Bank’s March inflation forecast was too positive, ECB President Mario Draghi admitted to MEPs on Thursday. This regular “monetary dialogue” meeting with the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee focused on the Eurozone economic outlook and the ECB's role in macro-economic adjustment programmes. Ready to do more The Bank is ready to go the extra mile if the inflation outlook weakens, reiterated Mr Draghi. "If we...

Getting the green light for placing novel foods on the EU market will become faster and cheaper while the high level of protection of human health will be preserved. That's the main purpose of a draft regulation that the Council's Permanent Representatives Committee approved on 11 November 2015. The draft regulation was voted by the Parliament on 28 October 2015. Novel foods are foods not consumed in the EU to a significant degree before May 1997. They include for instance...

Today , the internal think tank of the President of the European Commission, the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) published three new 'Strategic Notes', the start of a series called"5 Presidents Report Series". Each of these notes deals with individual but interrelated reforms of the EU financial system proposed in the so-called 'Five Presidents Report on Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union'. The first of the pieces, entitled "Regaining Citizens’ Trust, Safeguarding Banks’ Stability: Towards a European Deposit Insurance Scheme", deals with...

The industry committee set out its demands for a European energy union in a resolution passed on Tuesday. Among them: compliance with the Commission's recommendation concerning hydraulic fracturing, a voluntary system to collectively purchase energy, and support for the development of Europe's own energy resources. National energy mixes and a fully integrated internal market "National diversity" in energy-mix choices "must not represent a barrier to the single market", says the committee, which acknowledges "public concerns about hydraulic fracturing and its consequences"...