The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) have launched a public consultation on the first batch of policy products under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This includes four draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and one set of draft implementing technical standards (ITS). These technical standards aim to ensure a consistent and harmonised legal framework in the areas of ICT risk management, major ICT-related incident reporting and ICT third-party risk management. The consultation runs until 11 September 2023. Continue reading…

Mr Luigi Federico Signorini, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, recently gave a speech at the Villa Mondragone International Economic Seminar, Round table on “Risks from inflation and opportunities from fragmentation” at Monte Porzio Catone, Rome. After the Second World War, multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (as it is now called), have provided a framework in which a rule-based system of international cooperation has flourished, though initially only in our part of the world. A similar framework for cooperation in other key fields has been provided by the WHO and other institutions. Continue reading…

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 Caroline Raat

It is no wonder that EU employees are confused about what to do if they find out about any wrongdoing, like food safety, money laundering or GDPR breaches. When browsing on the internet, their first hit will probably be the loudest: come with us, it is legal, we will protect you and we will also publish your story on our website. But this ‘leaking’ is usually not legal under the EU Whistleblowing Directive and the national laws that implemented them – there is some variety, but not that much. Here are the do’s and don’ts.
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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…