The recent bank collapses and bailouts highlight the fragility of the banking system and our bank deposits. The digital euro is an opportunity to reconfigure our monetary system to serve the interests of people and society, by making money safer and more inclusive. However, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) current proposal for a digital euro falls short of this potential. The current plan relies heavily on private financial intermediaries and envisions putting important limitations on the use of digital euros, thereby impacting its capacity to be a universally accessible public good and risking undermining the uptake of the digital euro. By heeding to the bank lobby and baking their interests into the design of the digital euro, the ECB is missing an opportunity to develop an appealing and public digital alternative to private bank deposits. The digital euro must be developed with the aim of benefiting people and society over private interests, and these considerations should guide its design. In the short term, the digital euro should: 1. Be universally accessible. People should be able to access digital euros through a diverse range of intermediaries, which include non-profit and public entities. Implementing a tiered identification system for account-based digital euros, and introducing a value-based option, would ensure the availability of digital euros to the most vulnerable segments of society. 2. Be free of cost for users. Any future legislative framework on the digital euro should include a list of basic services that should be provided for free to users, such as opening and managing an account and the provision of a payment instrument (e.g. a card). 3. Offer a high level of privacy and data protection. Cash, which is fully anonymous, should be used as the baseline when developing the digital euro. A value-based option should be introduced alongside an account-based one, and it should be designed to be fully anonymous. For the account-based option, a ‘privacy threshold’ can ensure that users’ data for small transactions is protected. 4. Have a clear European Central Bank branding. Clear branding will help to differentiate public digital euros from private bank deposits. 5. Bring resilience to the payment system. By providing an offline value-based option, and by ensuring that the digital euro’s legal and technical core infrastructure is public and works independently of any private system, we can offer an alternative to existing payment rails and increase resiliency in case of outages. The digital euro is also an opportunity to improve financial stability by transforming the banking system, and helping central banks to more effectively carry out their monetary policy. The design of the digital euro should be flexible enough to allow for the achievement of these longterm goals, and more research should be conducted to explore how different features could help achieve them. For instance, a digital euro without any holding limit could reduce moral hazard in the banking sector, and the adjustment of interest rates on digital euro deposits and direct monetary transfers could improve the transmission of monetary policy.
Niet iedereen wenst nog te praten over de economische meerwaarde van de euro. De opmerkingen hierover van Coen Teulings in een veelbsproken interview in de Telegraaf waren dan ook zeer welkom.
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Essay based on a Presentation to International Stakeholder Forum, Convened by the Board of Directors of the Fair Labor Association, Washington D.C. June 26, 2009. There is much concern about the current crisis. Indeed the fall in consumption in developed countries is steep, anything between 15 to 25% over the first months of 2009 in most countries. This is double the decline of sales in previous recessions. However to this cyclical crisis and concerns two new concerns are being added. The first new concern to fashion, mainly amongst retailers and brands, is related to their impact on manufacturing in developing countries and to the employment and social conditions of workers. The second concern new to fashion, which is broadly shared amongst industries, is that after the crisis more structural changes in consumption will happen.
MULTIFILE
A research theme examining diversity and inclusion in video games, using an intersectional perspective and typically addressing issues related to the representation of gender, race, and LGBTQ+ people, but also touching broader topics such as class, age, geographic privilege, physical and neurodiversity, the (unevenly distributed) impacts of the climate crisis, and other aspects of identity.
De wereldvoedselvoorziening is in gevaar door een bestuivingscrisis. Wereldwijd worden 50-80% van onze gewassen bestoven door insecten, en dan met name door honingbijen. De honingbij heeft het in Nederland en West-Europa moeilijk doordat een parasiet, de Varroamijt, de bijenvolken ernstig verzwakt. Hierdoor sterven veel bijenvolken. Bijenhouders gebruiken chemische bestrijdingsmiddelen om de Varroamijt te remmen. Dit gebruik is helaas niet effectief genoeg, schadelijk voor de bijen zelf en de middelen komen ook in de honing terecht. Bijenhouders willen dan ook af van chemische bestrijding. Ideaal zou zijn als bijenvolken zelf de Varroamijt bestrijden. Dit Varroamijt bestrijdend (VSH: Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) gedrag komt sporadisch voor in bestaande bijenvolken. Het onderzoeksproject streeft naar een snelle teelt van volken met dit VSH gedrag. Natuurlijke selectie van het gedrag is arbeidsintensief, niet voldoende succesvol, gaat te langzaam en is in de werkpraktijk onwenselijk. Het consortium wil gerichte selectie mogelijk maken met een eenvoudig toepasbare DNA technologie die verwachte VSH eigenschappen van bestaande volken kan bepalen. Hiertoe zal 1) het VSH gedrag van volken en van individuele bijen worden beschreven, 2) de genetische basis van VSH gedrag worden bepaald, 3) een DNA merkertechnologie worden ontwikkeld voor detectie van VSH eigenschappen in bestaande volken, en 4) de merkertechnologie worden toegepast in het werkveld. Verwacht wordt dat in het project zowel proof of concept als proof of practice van de technologie bereikt worden, en een pilot van implementatie in het werkveld haalbaar is. Arista Bee Research en Bejo Zaden telen daarvoor 100% VSH bijenvolken en voeren kruisingen uit. Hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein zal individuele bijen die VSH gedrag vertonen selecteren uit de teeltlijnen. Hogeschool HIH en Bejo Zaden zullen de VSH genen opsporen en de merkertechnologie ontwikkelen. De Nederlandse Bijenhoudersvereniging zal in overleg met de teeltverenigingen van Carnica bijen en Buckfast bijen zorgdragen voor een pilot implementatie en daarmee een brede introductie van VSH genen in de Nederlandse honingbijen mogelijk maken. De resultaten van het project zijn 1) identificatie van VSH gedrag in individuen, 2) identificatie van VSH genen, 3) een op DNA merkers gebaseerde toegankelijke technologie voor identificatie van VSH genen, 4) een start van implementatie van de technologie via teeltverenigingen in Nederland, en 5) het verspreiden van de kennis in de Nederlandse bijenhouderij en publiceren van resultaten in internationale vakbladen. Door het tackelen van het probleem met Varroamijt wordt in Nederland het gebruik van bestrijdingsmiddelen in de bijenhouderij onnodig, de wintersterfte verlaagd en daarmee de bestuivingssituatie van voedselplanten verbeterd.
The CSTT contributes to Work Package 1 of the ETGG 2030 project.WP1 involves the development and preparation of the “European SME Going Green 2030 Report” with the objective of providing an overview of Europe-wide action on the state and development of sustainable tourism at different levels, with a particular focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to information on the political framework for sustainable tourism at global and at European levels, the emphasis of the report is on national chapters that are to describe and analyse the current situation of sustainable tourism in general and of SMEs in particular. The CSTT contributes the Dutch chapter.These national reviews should cover information regarding relevant stakeholders, policies and strategies as well as activities and instruments linked to sustainable tourism development at national level. Furthermore, they should address core achievements as well as challenges and opportunities regarding the development of sustainable tourism, possibly taking into consideration the implications of the Covid-19 crisis.
