Basel III and the EU banking sector: strengthening financial stability and resilience

Views: 17The EU-27 member states will apply the Basel III standards from January 2025; in mid-2024, the EU institutions completed implementation phase of these standards into the member states’ legislation. The new rules represent a vital step in strengthening stability and resilience of the EU-wide banking sector. Besides, the Basel standards are aimed at facilitating […]

Digital trade: assisting the EU-wide growth and digital transition

Views: 17Digital trade accounts for about a quarter of all international trade; it has been growing at a faster pace than traditional trade. The EU is the world’s leader in both exports and imports of digitally deliverable services, which amounted to €1.3 trillion in 2022, or over half of the EU’s total trade in services. […]

Consumer protection in Europe: combating sneaky practices

Views: 20Commission’s actions adopted recently are specifically focusing on the assessment of Meta’s practices under the EU consumer legislation. The action started in 2023, immediately after Meta requested consumers either to subscribe to use Facebook and Instagram against a fee or to consent to Meta’s use of their personal data to be shown personalized ads, […]

Anatomy of digital finance in the European Union

Views: 27The EU-wide specific financial framework, i.e. the capital markets union, has been at the heart of the Commission’s ambition in boosting growth, supporting innovation and promoting European global competitiveness. The EU financial sector has the potential to multiply sustainable finance and become a global leader in this area. The sector is having also a […]

Altered European political economy: challenges and solutions

Views: 34European Union is a constantly moving and adapting “mechanism” for the continental integration. Recently, the EU leaders have abandoned, in part or in whole, the previous political-economy’s theories and principles they cherished for so long; hence the EU-27, as it seems, has set aside the geopolitical corporate competition. However, the leaders are trying to […]

European economy and eurozone: challenges abound

Views: 23Resilient fiscal policies are needed in the euro area and specifically in the EU states with high debt and deficit levels. Given the modern uncertainties, fiscal policies must be prepared to adapt quickly, with prudence in spending and readiness to respond to possible risks. Two main “sub-unions” play vital role: the Economic and Monetary […]

European digital payments: “mobile wallets” and the Apple case

Views: 32European digital legislation ensures effective hardware and software’s interoperability and opens up competition in this sector, e.g. by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone’s system. Now competitors are able to compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments in shops and Apple cannot keep other mobile wallets out of the market. […]

EU financial services: digital perspectives

Views: 20Most productive EU-wide attention to digital-type financial services dates back to consultations on fin-tech in 2017 devoted to facilitating a more competitive and innovative European financial sector. Then around 2021, the central banks digital currency, CBDC has become a hot issue: several central banks around the world were considering options of adopting virtual currencies. […]

European “digital decade”: strengthening the EU-wide digital transformation

Views: 26European Commission has published the second report on the State of the Digital Decade, providing a comprehensive overview of the progress towards achieving the digital objectives and targets set for 2030. The 2024-report is accompanied by an analysis of the EU member states’ “digital decade strategic roadmaps” detailing the planned national measures, actions and […]

Managing low-carbon economy: main priorities and controversies

Views: 18The main pathways to low-carbon economic development, often called “deep decarbonization” proceed mainly through energy policy and nature conservation, sustainability and governance’s efficiency, etc. In essence, it is about consuming less energy, using available resources more efficiently in construction (both private and public), in transportation and industrial development.