The coalition parties that will form the next Dutch government published the coalition agreement, including their strategic priorities, on 30 January 2026. Notably, the ACM will be granted new merger‑control enforcement tools and the so-called new competition tool, FDI screening will be tightened, and additional instruments will be granted to temporarily halt mergers in the healthcare sector.
Submarine data cables, carrying 99% of intercontinental internet traffic, are essential for modern life and the European economy. As the EU faces increasing risks to this critical infrastructure, the European Commission is intensifying efforts to enhance its security and resilience. Today, it introduced a new Cable Security Toolbox of risk mitigating measures and a list of Cable Projects of European Interest (CPEIs). It also amended the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – Digital Work Programme to allocate €347 million to strategic submarine cable projects, including a €20 million call to enhance Europe’s repair capacities, which opens today.
Today’s announcements are part of the EU Action Plan on Cable Security, aimed at increasing the security and resilience of Europe’s submarine cables, including countering the rise of intentional damage and sabotage.
Cable Security Toolbox and projects of European interest
The toolbox outlines six strategic and four technical and support measures to improve the security of submarine cable infrastructure. It builds on the October 2025 risk assessment, which identified risk scenarios, threats, vulnerabilities and dependencies.
The list of 13 CPEI areas for public funding specifies three five-year stages, up to 2040, to fund projects aimed at strengthening the resilience of submarine cables. CPEI areas will be prioritised in upcoming CEF Digital calls for proposals and will inform planning for possible funding under the next Multi-annual Financial Framework.
These resources—risk assessment, toolbox and CPEIs—were developed by the Commission and Member State representatives within a dedicated Cables Expert Group.
Funding opportunities under Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital
The Commission amended the CEF Digital Work Programme, allocating €347 million to fund strategic submarine cable projects. These calls will support the CPEIs, enhance the EU’s cable repair capacity and equip submarine cables with smart capabilities.
In 2026, two funding calls worth €60 million will support cable repair modules, alongside a separate €20 million call for SMART cable system equipment. These are sensors and monitoring components integrated into submarine telecommunications infrastructure to gather real-time ocean and seismic data. Additionally, there will be two calls for CPEI funding in 2026 and 2027, totalling €267 million.
Supporting submarine cable repairs
Opening today is a €20 million call under CEF Digital to finance adaptable modules for submarine cable repairs. These modules will be stationed at ports or shipyards to swiftly restore submarine cable services.
This marks the first phase of a broader initiative planned for all major sea basins of the European Union, including the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This pilot will focus on the Baltic Sea due to the rise in submarine cable disruptions in recent years, suggesting these critical infrastructures might be subject to hostile acts.
Calls for proposals will be open only to public entities with an ‘emergency response’ mandate, such as those active in civil protection, national emergency response agencies, coastguards and military navies.
Background
In February 2024, the Commission adopted a Recommendation (EU) 2024/779 on Secure and Resilient Submarine Cable Infrastructures. It established the Submarine Cable Infrastructure Expert Group, involving Member State authorities and the European Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
A year later, Joint Communication on an EU Action Plan on Cable Security outlined measures to protect submarine cables at all stages of resilience. By October 2025, the Cable Expert Group published the EU risk assessment on submarine cable infrastructures, informing today’s EU Cable Security Toolbox of mitigating measures and the CPEIs list.
Under the current CEF Digital multiannual Work Programme (2024-2027), a total €533 million is allocated for submarine cable projects, with €186 million already awarded to 25 projects. From 2021 to 2024, it provided €420 million to 51 backbone cable connectivity projects.
Compliments of the European Commission The post European Commission | Commission Increases Submarine Cable Security with €347 Million Investment and New Toolbox first appeared on European American Chamber of Commerce New York [EACCNY] | Your Partner for Transatlantic Business Resources.
Frankfurt am Main, 5 February 2026
Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference.
We would like to begin by congratulating Bulgaria on joining the euro area on 1 January 2026. We also warmly welcome Dimitar Radev, the Governor of Българска народна банка (Bulgarian National Bank), to the Governing Council. Membership of the euro area has almost doubled since 1999 and is testimony to the attractiveness of the single currency and the enduring benefits of European integration.
We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting.
The Governing Council today decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. Our updated assessment reconfirms that inflation should stabilise at our two per cent target in the medium term. The economy remains resilient in a challenging global environment. Low unemployment, solid private sector balance sheets, the gradual rollout of public spending on defence and infrastructure and the supportive effects of our past interest rate cuts are underpinning growth. At the same time, the outlook is still uncertain, owing particularly to ongoing global trade policy uncertainty and geopolitical tensions.
We are determined to ensure that inflation stabilises at our two per cent target in the medium term. We will follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach to determining the appropriate monetary policy stance. In particular, our interest rate decisions will be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook and the risks surrounding it, in light of the incoming economic and financial data, as well as the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. We are not pre-committing to a particular rate path.
The decisions taken today are set out in a press release available on our website.
I will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing and will then explain our assessment of financial and monetary conditions.
Economic activity
The economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Eurostat’s preliminary flash estimate. Growth has mainly been driven by services, notably in the information and communication sector. Manufacturing has been resilient despite the headwinds from global trade and geopolitical uncertainty. Momentum in construction is picking up, also supported by public investment.
The labour market continues to support incomes, even though demand for labour has cooled further. Unemployment stood at 6.2 per cent in December, after 6.3 per cent in November. Growing labour incomes together with a lower household saving rate should bolster private consumption. Government spending on defence and infrastructure should also contribute to domestic demand. Business investment should strengthen further, and surveys indicate that firms are increasingly investing in new digital technologies. At the same time, the external environment remains challenging, owing to higher tariffs and a stronger euro over the past year.
The Governing Council stresses the urgent need to strengthen the euro area and its economy in the present geopolitical context. Governments should prioritise sustainable public finances, strategic investment and growth-enhancing structural reforms. Unlocking the full potential of the Single Market remains crucial. It is also vital to foster greater capital market integration by completing the savings and investments union and the banking union to an ambitious timetable, and to rapidly adopt the Regulation on the establishment of the digital euro.
Inflation
Inflation declined to 1.7 per cent in January, from 2.0 per cent in December and 2.1 per cent in November. Energy inflation dropped to -4.1 per cent, after -1.9 per cent in December and -0.5 per cent in November, while food price inflation increased to 2.7 per cent, from 2.5 per cent in December and 2.4 per cent in November. Inflation excluding energy and food eased to 2.2 per cent, after 2.3 per cent in December and 2.4 per cent in November. Goods inflation edged up to 0.4 per cent, whereas services inflation declined to 3.2 per cent, from 3.4 per cent in December and 3.5 per cent in November.
Indicators of underlying inflation have changed little over recent months and remain consistent with our two per cent medium-term target. Negotiated wage growth and forward-looking indicators, such as the ECB’s wage tracker and surveys on wage expectations, point to a continued moderation in labour costs. However, the contribution to overall wage growth from payments over and above the negotiated wage component remains uncertain.
Most measures of longer-term inflation expectations continue to stand at around 2 per cent, supporting the stabilisation of inflation around our target.
Risk assessment
The euro area continues to face a volatile global policy environment. A renewed increase in uncertainty could weigh on demand. A deterioration in global financial market sentiment could also dampen demand. Further frictions in international trade could disrupt supply chains, reduce exports and weaken consumption and investment. Geopolitical tensions, in particular Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine, remain a major source of uncertainty. By contrast, planned defence and infrastructure spending, together with the adoption of productivity-enhancing reforms and the adoption of new technologies by euro area firms, may drive up growth by more than expected, including through positive effects on business and consumer confidence. New trade agreements and a deeper integration of our European Single Market could also boost growth beyond current expectations.
The outlook for inflation continues to be more uncertain than usual on account of the volatile global policy environment. Inflation could turn out to be lower if tariffs reduce demand for euro area exports by more than expected and if countries with overcapacity increase further their exports to the euro area. Moreover, a stronger euro could bring inflation down beyond current expectations. More volatile and risk-averse financial markets could weigh on demand and thereby also lower inflation. By contrast, inflation could turn out to be higher if there were a persistent upward shift in energy prices, or if more fragmented global supply chains pushed up import prices, curtailed the supply of critical raw materials and added to capacity constraints in the euro area economy. If wage growth moderated more slowly, services inflation might come down later than expected. The planned boost in defence and infrastructure spending could also cause inflation to pick up over the medium term. Extreme weather events, and the unfolding climate and nature crises more broadly, could drive up food prices by more than expected.
Financial and monetary conditions
Market rates have come down since our last meeting, while global trade and geopolitical tensions temporarily increased financial market volatility. Bank lending rates for firms ticked up to 3.6 per cent in December, from 3.5 per cent in November, as did the cost of issuing market-based debt. The average interest rate on new mortgages again held steady, at 3.3 per cent in December.
Bank lending to firms grew by 3.0 per cent on a yearly basis in December, after 3.1 per cent in November and 2.9 per cent in October. The issuance of corporate bonds rose by 3.4 per cent in December. According to our latest bank lending survey for the euro area, firms’ demand for credit was up slightly in the fourth quarter, especially to finance inventories and working capital. At the same time, credit standards for business loans tightened again.
Mortgage lending grew by 3.0 per cent, after 2.9 per cent in November and 2.8 per cent in October, in response to still rising demand for loans and an easing of credit standards.
Conclusion
The Governing Council today decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. We are determined to ensure that inflation stabilises at our two per cent target in the medium term. We will follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach to determining the appropriate monetary policy stance. Our interest rate decisions will be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook and the risks surrounding it, in light of the incoming economic and financial data, as well as the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. We are not pre-committing to a particular rate path.
In any case, we stand ready to adjust all of our instruments within our mandate to ensure that inflation stabilises sustainably at our medium-term target and to preserve the smooth functioning of monetary policy transmission.
We are now ready to take your questions.
Compliments of the European Central Bank The post ECB | Monetary Policy Statement- Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB Press Conference first appeared on European American Chamber of Commerce New York [EACCNY] | Your Partner for Transatlantic Business Resources.
Today, the European Union, the United States and Japan met during the Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting held in Washington, DC in which several EU member states also took part.
The European Union, the United States and Japan are now taking significant steps towards increasing their economic security and national security by jointly enhancing resilience in critical minerals supply chains. They have announced their intention to expedite cooperative efforts for a mutually beneficial Partnership, with two components.
This includes a commitment within the next 30 days to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding between the European Union and the United States aimed at boosting critical minerals supply chain security. The forthcoming Memorandum of Understanding will identify areas of cooperation to stimulate demand and diversify supply for both participants by identifying and supporting projects in mining, refining, processing, and recycling. It will also include discussion of measures to prevent supply chain disruptions, promote research and innovation efforts, and facilitate the exchange of information on stockpiling. In addition, on 27 October 2025, the leaders of the United States and Japan signed a Framework for Securing the Supply of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths through Mining and Processing, covering the abovementioned areas.
Building upon existing international cooperation and initiatives, the European Union, the United States and Japan intend to develop Action Plans and explore a plurilateral trade initiative with like-minded partners on trade in critical minerals. Such a plurilateral trade initiative could include exploring the development of coordinated trade policies and mechanisms, such as border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, or offtake-agreements.
The Department of State will lead US engagement on the Memorandum of Understanding. The Office of the US Trade Representative will lead US engagement on the Action Plan.
The European Union, the United States and Japan intend to further engage on these aspects, as well as explore additional possibilities for critical minerals resilience and other measures, in relevant international fora, including the G7, and the Minerals Security Partnership or any successor forum.
Compliments of the European Commission The post European Commission | Joint Press Statement Among the European Commission, the United States Government, and the Japanese Government Following February 4 Critical Minerals Ministerial Meeting first appeared on European American Chamber of Commerce New York [EACCNY] | Your Partner for Transatlantic Business Resources.
Good morning to all.
Thank you, dear Ursula, for this special treat: to join your amazing team for a little while.
I’m here to talk about re-energizing Europe, why it matters, and how it can be done.
I loved being part of the Commission, and I love coming back home. Europe is a wonderful place—affluent, creative, fair. Home to the ancient cities of Athens and Rome but also to the makers of cutting-edge microchip machines and one in every two airliners worldwide.
Above all, it is home to the best invention of the 20th century: the EU’s convergence engine, lifting communities, countries, and living standards all across the membership.
But Europe’s convergence engine is stalling. It is held back by an incomplete single market and complacency about what it takes to compete in today’s and tomorrow’s world.
And this is happening while Europe faces huge external threats:
To the East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts a dark shadow over Europe’s most precious achievement—peace for its people.
And to the West, the transatlantic alliance is dented, with potentially high costs. We estimate that just a trade breakdown, if it were to happen, could cost the EU some 0.3 percent of GDP this year and next, on top of half a percentage point already lost.
You have a hugely important job: to lead Europe to overcome the barriers that hold it back.
Here are the hard facts:
Fact one: Europe’s economy is shrinking in relative terms, and size matters. When I was called to Brussels in 2010, EU GDP was the same as the US’s and a lot bigger than China’s. But now—what the heck?—look at how this has changed: here we see GDP and, here, we see GDP per capita (Slide 1). Europe is still rich, but its relative wealth is eroding, and it’s going to become harder and harder to sustain its cherished social model.
Fact two: Europe used to lead in productivity, but now it trails behind, and productivity matters—indeed it is the core underlying challenge. On the left, productivity of the US and EU tech sectors; on the right, the same for non-tech (Slide 2). The gap keeps growing.
Fact three: Europe’s firms used to dominate, but now they are less competitive and less able to grow, and corporate scale matters. Here is market capitalization for firms born in the last 50 years—look at how the US dwarfs the EU, especially in high-tech (Slide 3).
Europe has plenty of startups, but they struggle to grow—and this drives many European innovators to foreign shores.
For its people and its standing in the world, Europe needs to grow more. And to do that, dynamically and durably, it needs to set itself one core objective: much faster productivity growth.
OK—but how?
By pursuing with higher determination two major efforts:
One, structural reforms at the national level, focused on increasing flexibility in local product and labor markets; and
Two, completion of the single market, focused on the EU’s four freedoms—the freedom of movement of goods, of services, of labor, of capital.
You and your teams have been pushing on both fronts—please push even harder.
We know over-regulation and clumsy regulation impose large costs on Europe:
In intra-EU cross-border trade, regulatory barriers are two-to-three times higher than for interstate trade in the US.
For cross-border labor movement, regulatory barriers and other factors make moving about eight times more costly than between the 50 US states.
In energy, limited grid linkages and resource endowments coupled with geopolitical factors leave Europe with an average energy price double that in the US, with high volatility and variation.
In finance, a banking system split into 27 national pieces, paired with small and fragmented capital markets, leaves Europe’s 60‑trillion‑euro financial system handling what I call “lazy money”—too afraid to prudently take sufficient risks to support growth.
You can drive solutions to these challenges.
Working with member states, you should lead a deep “regulatory housecleaning” to sweep away the legacy rules that do more harm than good—harm that includes disproportionately burdening small firms, as we can see here (Slide 4).
And as you do this, you must push back hard against uneven enforcement and “gold plating” as member states add requirements going far beyond the minimum mandated by EU Directives.
With the single market running on 27 national legal regimes for firms, we at the IMF strongly support your determination to bring to life a 28th regime—to allow firms to opt into a single, pan-EU legal framework covering company law and insolvency, broadening over time.
We urge swift action, and we urge it be done by EU Regulation, not Directive—Europe does not need a 28th regime with 27 versions!
For labor market mobility, in turn, many steps are needed. Key among them: mutual recognition of qualifications, social security portability, and flexible housing markets. Europe cannot thrive without a mobile workforce.
Moving to energy, we see a strategic vulnerability that touches every factory, data center, and household across the EU—a vulnerability that cuts directly to competitiveness and resilience. Integration requires eliminating national subsidies, building interconnectors, aligning grid access and tariffs, and fast-tracking permitting for renewables and storage.
All of this needs to be integrated into one European blueprint for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
Meeting Europe’s strategic needs—from energy security to defense—requires joint action. And that action, in our view, should be supported by joint funding. We at the IMF see a case for more EU debt issuance in key areas, to efficiently drive forward European public goods delivery.
Despite high public debt ratios in several member states—where we urge fiscal consolidation—the EU’s aggregate public debt load remains below that of China and the US (Slide 5). So there is some room; use it wisely, strategically. But use it.
At the same time, Europe must drive forward its savings and investment union to channel risk capital—not just from Europe’s vast pool of savings but from global markets—to its most innovative firms, delivering cross-border private risk sharing, higher returns, and faster growth.
I ask you, please look at the number of exchanges, trading platforms, and clearinghouses in the EU relative to the US (Slide 6). Ridiculous! We urge that the political emphasis shift from national to European financial markets.
We know that pan-European finance is tied up in a knot of national redlines. Countries fear imported financial and fiscal risks, defend local banking cooperatives, protect their positions in investment fund registration, and so much more.
But Europe needs one unified financial system, not 27 silos. Your recent package for the savings and investment union sets the right direction of travel. Yet getting to the destination will require much more ambition, collectively, and a will to confront vested interests and inertia.
And, speaking as a former Vice President for the EU Budget, let me add that performance-based budgeting under the Multiannual Financial Framework can play a strongly supportive role in helping align national and shared European interests.
Finally, keep trading, keep being a voice for rules-based trade! I salute your efforts to put Europe’s negotiating power to good use crafting trade deals with key partners. I celebrate your recent deals with Mercosur and India. More please!
And should anyone doubt the benefits of the common trade policy, one more animation. Here we see countries’ market size and openness. Note the US and China both sit in the bottom-right corner (Slide 7).
Now please watch carefully. See how 27 EU member states—the little blue dots—move down and to the right to merge as one large, powerful dot: this is the EU, sitting with the other “big boys.” In this simple graphic we can see how the EU’s common trade policy delivers strength.
The case for joint action—urgent, determined action—is unambiguous.
A good moment for a spot of happy news: IMF research shows that, if national and single-market reforms were to reduce intra-EU frictions to levels comparable with those in the US, EU productivity could rise by 20 percent, materially narrowing the gap to the US.
And looking beyond the models, we see ample real-world evidence that reforms pay off: Just look at Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
Let me end with three practical suggestions:
First, make the single market your single-minded obsession. Appoint a single market “czar” with full authority and political credibility to drive forward implementation in both the European Council and the Commission. You all have separate areas of duty, yet they all need to come together to form a united whole. The EU’s unified approach to Brexit shows it can be done.
Second, set a hard deadline and plan backward from it with discipline and resolve. Whether it is January 2028 or some other feasible but demanding date, Europe needs a deadline that signals this single-minded focus on the single market and ironclad will to get the job done.
Third, transform Europe’s image as a “regulatory superpower” that suffocates business into one that adapts swiftly to a rapidly changing world and sweeps away obsolete rules and red tape. Use AI to help you with your regulatory deep-cleaning—why not? Transform the EU into a new global leader in streamlining and modernization.
To close, I want to leave you with a question, rhetorical yet serious: what will Europe’s next global success on the scale of Airbus be? A cutting-edge venture in AI perhaps? In defense? In energy? Unleash the single market and I am confident we will get our answer! Thank you!
Compliments of the International Monetary Fund The post IMF | Re-energizing Europe Speech by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director At the European Commission first appeared on European American Chamber of Commerce New York [EACCNY] | Your Partner for Transatlantic Business Resources.
Legislative proposal to limit the transition payment compensation scheme for dismissal due to long-term illness for small employers
The EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), also dubbed the “trade bazooka”, has recently made headlines due to heightened geopolitical tensions. This instrument, designed to deter and counter economic coercion, has not yet been deployed. However, the increasing reliance on trade and investment measures to achieve foreign policy objectives and apply pressure on counterparts suggests that such instruments will be tested. It may only be a matter of time before a confrontation between the EU and a third country prompts its first application.
Dutch tax regulations concerning energy, sustainability and climate continue to evolve rapidly. We periodically publish an overview of these developments, and are happy to present our latest edition. This edition reflects legislative and policy changes up to 1 January 2026. It includes, among other updates, the latest measures introduced as part of the 2026 Tax Plan.
Der Bundestag hat am Donnerstag, 29. Januar 2026 das KRITIS-Dachgesetz beschlossen. Damit setzt Deutschland die EUCER-Richtlinie in nationales Recht um und führt erstmals sektorenübergreifende Mindestvorgaben für den physischen Schutz kritischer Anlagen ein. Für Betreiber bedeutet das: Registrierung, Risikoanalysen, Resilienz-Pläne, Melde und Nachweispflichten – mit klaren Fristen und Aufsicht.
Becker’s Washington Weekly: Week of February 2
