Session 1: Macroeconomic implications of changes in euro area labour markets
Chair: Luis de Guindos, Vice-President, European Central Bank
Paper: “Eurosclerosis at 40: labor market institutions, dynamism, and European competitiveness”
Author: Benjamin Schoefer, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Discussant: Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, President, WZB Berlin, and Professor, Goethe University Frankfurt
Panel 1: Cross-country heterogeneity in the euro area and implications for monetary policy
Chair: Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Second Deputy Governor, Banque de France
Piet Haines Christiansen, Director, Danske Bank
Luca Fornaro, Senior Researcher, CREI, and Adjunct Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Refet Gürkaynak, Professor, Bilkent University
Session 2: Monetary transmission through households, consumption and savings
Chair: Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board, European Central Bank
Paper: “Discretionary spending is the cycle, and why it matters for monetary policy”
Author: Paolo Surico, Professor, London Business School
(together with Michele Andreolli, Assistant Professor, Boston College, Natalie Rickard, London Business School, and Chiara Vergeat, London Business School)
Discussant: María Teresa Valderrama, Head of the Monetary Policy Section, Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Press Conference: Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, and President of the Security Council in July 2025 on the Programme of Work of the Security Council in July.
Meet Martha C. Mayorquín-Torres, a Mexican scientist conducting research on renewable resources in pharmaceuticals.
Martha completed her studies in the pharmaceutical field in Mexico City. While seeking new opportunities to advance her research and develop her career, she discovered the TransPharm Project, which is financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme at Ghent University.
This marked the beginning of her move to Ghent, Belgium, where she found an abundance of resources at her disposal—both in terms of equipment and the knowledge her colleagues could offer. Her research focuses on creating antiviral components from greener and more renewable resources, while also making pharmaceutical manufacturing processes more sustainable.
During her time working on her research, Martha realised that Europe can be more than just a place to advance her career; it can become home.
00:13 The resources of the research group
00:40 Greener and more sustainable pharmaceuticals
01:21 The courage to move to Europe and Europe becoming home
Watch on the Audiovisual Portal of the European Commission: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-274736
Follow us on:
-X: https://twitter.com/EU_Commission
-Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/europeancommission/
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanCommission
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-commission/
-Medium: https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission
Our climate is our shared responsibility. The 2040 EU Climate Target marks a bold commitment to protect the planet while driving leadership, competitiveness, and innovation.
This vision sets the path for a resilient, secure, and sustainable future, fueling prosperity through a just green transition.
The ECB Forum on Central Banking – the Sintra Forum – is an annual event organised by the European Central Bank and is held in Sintra, Portugal.
It brings together central bank governors, academics, financial market representatives, journalists and others to exchange views on current policy issues and discuss the Forum’s key topic from a longer-term perspective.
Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
Prime Minister’s Question Time, also referred to as PMQs, takes place every Wednesday the House of Commons sits. It gives MPs the chance to put questions to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer MP, or a nominated minister.
In most cases, the session starts with a routine ‘open question’ from an MP about the Prime Minister’s engagements. MPs can then ask supplementary questions on any subject, often one of current political significance.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch MP, asks six questions and the leader of the second largest opposition party asks two. If another minister takes the place of the Prime Minister, opposition parties will usually nominate a shadow minister to ask the questions.
Want to find out more about what’s happening in the House of Commons this week? Follow the House of Commons on: