Centre for European Policy Studies

35 Views As Europe explores new avenues for enhancing its competitiveness without compromising the regulatory standards it has built up over the past two decades, the debate over financial services risks being narrowed down to a choice between upholding high regulatory standards and embracing greater regulatory openness. Ten years of Solvency II equivalence indicate otherwise.

32 Views Many countries around the world have come to accept animosity in global trade as it is increasingly normalised. The EU and its trading partners, often deeply intertwined through free trade areas, have been painfully surprised by the eruption of serious trade frictions – and sometimes outright trade war. In this event, Craig VanGrasstek, Adjunct Professor at the John F.

18 Views Together with the Nordic Banking associations from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, CEPS is organising a series of roundtables on banking competitiveness in the second half of 2026. These roundtables convene key stakeholders to discuss the competitiveness of European banks in the context of the European Commission Communication on Competitiveness of the Banking Sector and the Single Market in Banking presented on 17 July 2026.

36 Views Webinar on Zoom Tokenised deposits are emerging as an important part of the debate on the future of money and financial innovation. This event will bring together representatives from the banking sector, the stablecoin industry and public authorities to explore their potential role in an increasingly digital financial system. The discussion will examine what tokenised deposits are, what they are not, how they differ from other forms of digital money and what use cases they may enable.

7 Views Transitioning towards a circular textile economy has become a central objective of the European Union’s sustainability policy. Moving away from the currently linear textile system is essential for reducing environmental impacts and limiting dependence on virgin raw materials, while also strengthening the resilience of European value chains.

11 Views From 1 January 2027, importers must demonstrate producer-level measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) equivalence for supplies under contracts concluded or renewed on or after 4 August 2024. Earlier contracts are subject to an ‘all reasonable efforts’ requirement. With these requirements approaching, significant concerns remain as to whether the compliance and implementation framework is sufficiently developed to allow importers to meet and report these requirements in practice.

142 Views Hardly ever has an election in one of Germany’s 16 federal states drawn so much international attention. But this one has marked a change – for the first time in postwar Germany, a far-right party won a majority and will likely form the next state government. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won almost 44 % of votes in Saxony-Anhalt, even though the party has been classified as right-wing extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.

20 Views The Pacific is more than a distant ocean or geopolitical theatre. The EU is part of the Pacific landscape, through territory and maritime space, treaty commitments and increasingly direct geopolitical and geoeconomic interests. That’s why last week’s 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM55) in Palau deserves more European attention than a passing glance at a headlines about the recent Chinese missile test or Taiwan’s attendance.

19 Views The Return Regulation seeks to replace the 2008 Return Directive and establish a Common European System for Returns applying directly across Member States. Its central aim is to raise the EU’s return rate – the share of return orders that end in actual removal. Evidence from the MORE project shows that the effectiveness of return policy cannot be judged by removal rates alone.

47 Views Ten years after Solvency II came into force, equivalence has become an established part of the EU’s prudential architecture for dealing with third country insurance markets.