Think Tank

This study explores the design of future Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation (R&I) in the European Union. Employing a foresight methodology – comprising a literature review, case studies, scenarios and foresight workshops with stakeholders – the study examines prevailing discourses on Framework Programme structures, identifies key R&I trends, and analyses the challenges posed by current developments. It presents a set of hypothetical programme structures alongside policy recommendations ...

The current US administration promotes dollar-backed stablecoins—privately issued and supported by US debt—to reinforce dollar dominance worldwide, a strategy we dub “cryptomercantilism.” This report studies the EU’s 2024 Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR) and its safeguards for the EU’s monetary sovereignty. It also compares MiCAR to the proposed GENIUS Act in the US. Under existing policies, USD stablecoins create severe risks for third countries, indirectly also affecting the EU. The ...

In this paper, we review the recent economic outlook, policy decisions and communication of the ECB against the backdrop of growing uncertainty. First, inflation heterogeneity has receded with inflation, thus contributing to facilitating the design of monetary policy. Second, monetary easing is somewhat dampened by the reduction in ECB’s balance sheet. Third, ECB has chosen to foreground uncertainty more explicitly in its public-facing communication, potentially as a tool to manage expectations and ...

This study addresses the interplay between the health and socio-demographic conditions characterising the EU's ageing population, focused on populations at risk of social inequality, to provide information that policymakers can use to promote healthy ageing. The goal of the study is to compare trends in healthy life years across both populations (countries) and specific populations (by gender and level of education), and to address the social inequalities associated with healthy ageing so that we ...

Confronted with warfare on the European continent since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU Member States, along with other European partners, have backed the need for a substantial increase in defence spending. This budgetary challenge has in turn raised important questions about the role of taxation in financing these efforts.