Inflation has been coming down, with the latest data showing a broad-based decline. But it is still projected to remain too high for too long. In our latest projections, Eurosystem staff expect headline inflation to average 5.4% in 2023, 3.0% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025. Staff have also revised up their projections for core inflation, which they now see reaching 5.1% in 2023, before it declines to 3.0% in 2024 and 2.3% in 2025. This revision is due to past upward surprises in inflation and the implications of the robust labour market for the speed of disinflation. Specifically, we expect both wages and employment to continue growing strongly over the projection horizon, while output growth will be weaker this year and next. In this context, labour productivity growth will be lower and rising unit labour costs are likely to put upward pressure on inflation. Continue reading…

by František Nonnemann & Vladan Rámiš

The right to be forgotten (right to erasure) is one of the well-known, and somewhat feared, legal institutes introduced by GDPR. On the other hand, the right to erasure is not absolute. It does not always apply and must be balanced against the interests and rights of other persons. However, this does not mean that the scope of the right to erasure is clear in practice and does not raise several issues and uncertainties. How should a data controller, especially an internet search engine, proceed if a data subject objects that the data displayed or otherwise processed is untrue? Misleading, offensive, factually incorrect? The search engine operator usually acts as the controller of the personal data it displays, but it is not the one who has placed the data on the Internet. It therefore has no other information how to assesses the accuracy of the data which has been published on the source page. Continue reading…

The BIS Innovation Hub’s Nordic Centre has successfully concluded Project Aurora, a proof of concept that explores new ways of combating money laundering with a combination of payments data, privacy-enhancing technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and enhanced cooperation across institutions and borders. According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), almost all large money laundering schemes are cross-border and involve different business sectors. Meanwhile, financial institutions often face limitations in detecting potential suspicious networks and transactions due to their reliance on fragmented data and systems. Continue reading…

A few weeks ago, the Commission adopted a Recommendation on how to combat commercial scale online piracy of sports and other live events, such as concerts and theatre performances. It encourages Member States, national authorities, holders of rights and providers of intermediary services to take effective, balanced and appropriate measures to fight unauthorised retransmissions of such streamings, in full compliance with fundamental rights and personal data protection rules. By stepping up the fight against online piracy, the Recommendation will contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of the EU sport and creative industries.
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Eurojust has supported the authorities in the Netherlands and Finland with a coordinated operation against dividend fraud and tax evasion. During an action day, two suspects were arrested in the Netherlands and Finland, who are allegedly involved in so-called ‘Cum-Cum’ and ‘Cum-Ex’ fraud. Eurojust assisted with organising the action day and helped set up a joint investigation team (JIT) between Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. Continue reading…

by Alex Movchan

We recently conducted an interview together with Timur Khasanov-Batirov (the Netherlands), Co-founder of Dutch Compliance Club. This particular talk focused on topics such as top priorities for compliance officers, the implementation of compliance programs, current trends in large organisations, and ESG.  Continue reading…

by Sandro Severoni

In his novelette “The Bicentennial man” published in 1976, sixteen years later used as reference for the book “The Positronic Man” from him and Robert Silverberg, and in 1999 for the movie from Chris Columbus, Isaac Asimov depicted the character of a robot who evolves during two centuries from being a robot, created to serve as butler to a family that had early on discovered that it had some abilities to carve objects from wood, to a conscious being wanting to consider itself a man. As Thomas Metzinger mentioned in 2009 in his “The science of mind and the myth of the self”: “it is conceivable that someday we will be able to construct artificial agents (…) self-sustaining systems”, this may bring to consider that, if we were able to create such agents in self-sustaining machines possessing some kind of consciousness qualities, it will raise concerns about their moral status and how they are treated, included into a society, receive rights and legal protection. Continue reading…

The European Commission has updated the list of high-risk third-country jurisdictions presenting strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes. Two third-country jurisdictions were added to it: Nigeria and South Africa, while two other jurisdictions were delisted: Cambodia and Morocco. This list takes into account the information from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the changes decided at the last FATF Plenary of February 2023 in the list of ‘Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring’ (‘grey list’). Considering the level of financial systems’ integration, the Single Market would be exposed to serious risks of money laundering and terrorist financing if the EU were not to consider adding jurisdictions identified by the FATF to the EU list. Continue reading…

On 15 February 2023, the European Commission decided to refer Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary and Poland to the Court of Justice for failure to transpose and notify the national measures transposing the directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law into their legal framework (Directive (EU) 2019/1937). The directive requires Member States to provide whistleblowers working in the public and private sectors with effective channels to report breaches of EU rules confidentially, establishing a robust system of protection against retaliation. This applies both internally (within an organisation) and externally (to a competent public authority). Member States had to transpose the necessary measures to comply with the Directive’s provisions by 17 December 2021. Continue reading…