COVID has brought to the fore the importance of easy access to health services to contain the mortality rate, given significant inter-state and intra-state differences in healthcare infrastructure.
They play a key part in strengthening the competitiveness and growth potential of the European Union. In 2012 the ECB published a study, conducted with 13 EU central banks, on the social and private costs of different retail payment instruments. 1 The study showed that the social costs of retail payment instruments are substantial and amount to € billion, i.e.