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Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioners Schmit and Gentiloni have been invited to an Economic Dialogue to discuss the 2021 European Semester Cycle, in line with the relevant EU law. This briefing note covers the main elements of the 2021 European Semester Package proposed by the Commission. It gives an overview of the implementation of the previous Semester Cycles and of the on-going work to strengthen the governance and the resilience of Economic and Monetary Union.

Uncertainty - a state in which assessing future conditions by economic agents is hampered - rose sharply during the current pandemic. A bout of uncertainty can have similar effects like an adverse demand shock, dampening private consumption, investment and, hence, inflation. According to our own estimations, however, the pandemic-induced spike of uncertainty has caused little macroeconomic damage so far. The introduction of PEPP was a quick and decisive action that stopped uncertainty from rising ...

This paper considers how the ECB can implement its mandate in the current crisis conditions and the legal constraints that exist on its actions. The current position of the euro area economy means the threat to meeting the ECB’s primary objective of price stability stems from the possibility of a long period of below-target inflation. This means the ECB should consider a wide range of stimulative policies that would help it meet both its primary and secondary objectives. The ECB, however, will be ...