Specialised public prosecutors from the United States and EU Member States will step up their cooperation to tackle major cross-border and intercontinental environmental crime. During a dedicated liaison meeting, hosted by Eurojust, officials devised a process to set environmental crime priorities for operational action, criminal intelligence sharing, and developing cooperation tools and mechanisms to exchange information and best practices. Continue reading…

The European Central Bank (ECB) has on 19 September published further details on how it aims to gradually decarbonise the corporate bond holdings in its monetary policy portfolios, on a path aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. One goal is to reduce the Eurosystem’s exposure to climate-related financial risk, following the Governing Council’s July 2022 decision to tilt the Eurosystem’s corporate bond purchases towards issuers with a better climate performance. Furthermore, these measures support the green transition of the economy in line with the EU’s climate neutrality objectives. Continue reading…

On 19 September, the Commission is presenting the new Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI). This crisis governance framework aims to preserve the free movement of goods, services and persons and the availability of essential goods and services in the event of future emergencies, to the benefit of citizens and businesses across the EU. While the Single Market has proven to be our best asset in crisis management, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted structural shortcomings hampering the EU’s ability to effectively respond to emergency situations in a coordinated manner. Unilateral measures caused fragmentation, worsening the crisis and affecting particularly SMEs. Continue reading…

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) have on 12 September issued their Autumn 2022 joint risk report. The report highlights that the deteriorating economic outlook, high inflation and rising energy prices have increased vulnerabilities across the financial sectors. The ESAs advise national supervisors, financial institutions and market participants to prepare for challenges ahead. Continue reading…

by Michal Pleticha

The Czech Republic is at a crossroad in deciding how to regulate disinformation. In order to adopt the Strategy to Combat Disinformation (see Part I.), it’s necessary for the Government to draft and push a large number of amendments through both chambers of the Czech Parliament and the Presidential Office. Since disinformation is a sensitive political subject, capable of deepening the current split in politics and society, it could be the beginning of fierce political battle. Continue reading…

by Daniel Vaknine

Although whistleblowing is often represented as huge scandals in the media or on TV, it is often not quite as dramatic in reality. The majority of whistleblower cases are handled internally and concern the incorrect treatment of employees or negative working conditions. However, there have been huge scandals that have occurred at very large corporate companies. Scandals that could have been prevented with the help of whistleblowing. In this post, we therefore take a closer look at 3 occasions that whistleblowing could have made a difference. Continue reading…

by Michal Pleticha

A threatening phenomenon appeared in Czech society: another desperate family discovers that one of its members became a different person. Someone who literally detached himself from reality and became an angry and hostile person with an aggressive attitude to common topics of conversation. It is likely that such a person succumbed to the phenomenon of “disinformation”, which changed his perception of reality and his personality. He is obsessed with the delusion of the “hidden truth” which comes up on the surface only thanks to the uncensored free media (meaning specialised websites, social media groups and citizen journalists. Well-established and quality public media are allegedly censored and spread only lies and manipulation. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Citigroup Global Markets Limited (Citigroup Global Markets) £12,553,800 for failing to properly implement the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) trade surveillance requirements relating to the detection of market abuse. By failing to properly implement the MAR trade surveillance requirements, Citigroup Global Markets could not effectively monitor its trading activities for certain types of insider dealing and market manipulation. 

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On August 24, the Commission decided to register a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Call to achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation by 2030′. The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to propose legislation to save new generations from falling into tobacco addiction, to act against related environmental dangers and against smoking. More specifically, they ask the Commission to propose legal acts to end the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to citizens born in 2010 onwards. The initiative also calls on specific measures to achieve tobacco-free and cigarette butt-free beaches and riverbanks, create a European network of tobacco and cigarette butt-free national parks, to extend outdoor vapour-free spaces, and to eliminate tobacco advertising and its presence in audiovisual productions and social media. Continue reading…

On 17 July 2022, Hyun Song Shin, Economic Adviser and Head of Research of the BIS, gave a speech at the G20 High-level Seminar “Monetary and financial sector policy to support stability and recovery”. For near-term macroeconomic stabilisation of the economy, we are accustomed to viewing the economy mainly through the demand side, with supply adjusting smoothly in the background. However, a more balanced approach between demand and supply is essential in addressing the current inflation challenge. Today, I use this perspective to assess the odds of a soft landing for the global economy by drawing on a BIS Bulletin released this week. Continue reading…