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"...

On 10 November in Brussels, Vice-President Dombrovskis, Commissioner Moscovici and Commissioner Hill will participate in the EU's Council of Economic and Finance Ministers, which will be followed by a press conference, transmitted by EbS. Ministers are due to adopt conclusions on the Capital Markets Union Action Plan that the Commission presented on 30 September. The EU and its Member States have committed to scaling up the mobilisation of climate finance ahead of the COP21 which will be held in Paris in December. The Council is expected to adopt...

A further sharp downturn in emerging market economies and world trade has weakened global growth to around 2.9% this year – well below the long-run average – and is a source of uncertainty for near-term prospects, says the OECD. In its latest twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the OECD projects a gradual strengthening of global growth in 2016 and 2017 to an annual 3.3% and 3.6% respectively. But a clear pick-up in activity requires a smooth rebalancing of activity in China and more...