Development and deployment of clean-energy technologies is crucial if climate targets are to be met cost-effectively. The European Union already has a plan that deals with these issues: the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, which has become central to the achievement of the EU's ambitions. In a...

There are two possible responses to the Greek debt crisis: â??Plan Aâ??, continued official lending, for as long as needed, with possible voluntary private sector involvement, and â??Plan Bâ??, coercive pre-emptive or post-default restructuring with significant face value reduction. Both...

Significant volumes of Structural and Cohesion Funds have been pre-allocated but remain undisbursed or uncommitted. In Portugal, unused funds amount to 9.3 percent of GDP, in Greece close to 7 percent, and in central and eastern European countries about 15 percent. These funds should be part of...

Reform of the international monetary system is under discussion after three decades of apathy. Tectonic shifts in the balance of international power have made reform more urgent. However, in the short term, there is little chance of a grand redesign of the international monetary system....

The Blue Bond proposal, published in May 2010 (Bruegel Policy Brief 2010/03) suggests that sovereign debt in euro-area countries be split into two parts. The first part, the senior â??Blueâ?? tranche of up to 60 percent of GDP, would be pooled among participating countries and jointly and...

Twenty months after the first G20 summit in Washington, we assess the implementation of the 47 action items included in that summitâ??s final declaration. We analyse and provide a score for progress made using three measures: implementation of the leadersâ?? agenda; consistency across...

The financial crisis exposed EuropeÂ?s inadequacy in developing an effective banking resolution framework that could bring together national authorities and set guidelines for their coordination. The European Commission, through its assessment of state aid cases, managed to avoid single market...

Based on their contribution to the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, in this Policy Contribution Resident Fellows Zsolt Darvas and Jakob von Weizsäcker discuss the merits of the much-discussed financial-transaction tax. They argue that the case for taxing financial...

Senior Resident Fellows Reinhilde Veugelers and Bruno van Pottelsberghe provide recommendations for the term of new Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes in this supplement to Bruegel's Memos to the New Commission: Europe's Economic Priorities 2010-2015. They argue that Kroes should move past...

In this paper, Benedicta Marzinotto and Jörg Rocholl focus on the tightening of credit conditions for banking rules (Basel III), particularly the estimated macroeconomic costs range, monetary policy and the aggregate costs of the measures. The authors report that the monetary policy response to...