The ECB wants central bank money to serve as the monetary anchor for tokenised markets. Piero Cipollone calls for common standards, central bank money and coordinated regulation to prevent blockchain-based finance from becoming a collection of disconnected platforms

Are American tech billionaires adversaries or role models for Europe? Rebecca Christie writes that the EU should ask what it wants from globally influential tech magnates, not just how to curb them

The EU’s AI Act was supposed to enter into full effect on 2 August 2026. But while the transparency layer has come into effect, its high-risk regime has been delayed. Marco Perugini argues that the result is a double bind in which Europe loses regulatory sovereignty whether it enforces its own rules or retreats from them

The Paris Agreement provides a framework for international carbon trading. Georg Zachmann and Annabelle Weisser discuss the many questions that will arise, and argue that international carbon credits can support the EU’s 2040 target if buyers’ club rules and leverage ensure real mitigation gains abroad

European banking remains fragmented, leaving billions of euros inefficiently allocated. Gyöngyi Lóránth, Anatoli Segura and Jing Zeng argue that a common deposit insurance system can encourage more risk-taking, but this should be accompanied by sufficiently strict supervision

EU banking rules are under pressure for simplification. Jesper Berg and Hans Geeroms argue that reforms should cut complexity without weakening financial safeguards