Blog post by Kristalina Georgieva | It’s fitting that G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will meet this week at Sao Paulo’s Biennale Pavilion, designed by famed architect Oscar Niemeyer. With its flowing lines and striking façade, it is a monument to the boldness of modern Brazil. I hope the G20 takes inspiration from this landmark to act boldly, too. With recent improvement to the global-near term outlook, G20 policymakers have an opportunity to rebuild policy momentum, setting their...

The Commission welcomes the Council's adoption of a 13th package of sanctions against Russia. Two years since Russia brutally invaded Ukraine, EU's support for Ukraine and its people remains as strong as ever. Europe is united and determined to continue defending its values and founding principles. This package focuses on further limiting Russia's access to military technologies, such as for drones, and on listing additional companies and individuals involved in Russia's war effort. With this new package the number of...

Blog post by Ulrich Bindseil, Piero Cipollone and Jürgen Schaaf | On 18 October 2023 the ECB’s Governing Council outlined the scope and key features of a digital euro. The ECB also decided to proceed with the “preparation phase” of the digital euro project. The actual decision on whether to issue a digital euro will be taken at a later stage, but not before the legal framework is in place and all functional features have been specified. Based on the specifications...

The Internal Market and Environment committees adopted on Wednesday their position on the rules on how firms can validate their environmental marketing claims. The so-called green claims directive complements the already-approved EU ban on greenwashing. It defines what kind of information companies have to provide to justify their environmental marketing claims in the future. It also creates a framework and deadlines for checking evidence and approving claims, and specifies what happens to companies who break the law. Verification system and penalties MEPs...

By Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament | Brussels, 14 February 2024 Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the Committee today. As I emphasised during my confirmation hearing, I am committed to actively pursuing the dialogue with the European Parliament on a digital euro. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the euro and our monetary union. It is up to us to...

Blog post by Diana Gomes and Anamaria Piloiu | The Eurosystem has accepted Scope as a new rating agency alongside Fitch, Moody's, S&P and DBRS. This has a number of implications, including a wider range of credit opinions and expertise being considered for monetary policy purposes. Credit rating agencies are private companies which assess the creditworthiness of issuers of financial instruments – be they governments, commercial banks or corporates. Many investors in the financial markets rely on rating agencies because...

Leaders from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy; and the National Science Foundation; and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast) gathered at the White House to announce over $5 billion in expected investment in the CHIPS R&D program, including the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), and formally establish a public-private consortium for the NSTC. The announcement included hundreds of millions of dollars of expected investment in the semiconductor workforce;...