Irish Government’s anti-meat tweet deleted amid farmers’ outrage
A tweet encouraging the public in Ireland not to eat meat was axed by a state agency of the Irish Government after a backlash from farming organisations in the country.
Economy
Latest reporting and analysis on economy.
France prevails as EU strikes agreement on landmark electricity market reform
The European Council has reached agreement on a proposal to amend the European Union's electricity landscape that includes French nuclear power, despite the industry…
Orbán meets Putin in Beijing, highlighting mutual ‘good relations’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has become the first European Union leader to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin since an international arrest warrant…
Ikea hikes security in Belgian stores after Brussels terror attack on Swedes
Swedish furniture giant Ikea has announced it is ramping up security in its Belgian stores after the terror attack in Brussels on October 16.
Beware Country Garden and Evergrande: a Chinese property crunch could be about to set off a global financial crisis
Country Garden sounds so innocuous, but so did Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, until those sweet sounding names became shorthand for global financial disaster.
Italy unveils tax-cutting 2024 budget amid debt worries
Italy's government on Monday approved a budget for next year with measures worth around 24 billion euros in tax cuts and increased spending, despite market concerns…
Football clubs seek to test European Commission powers to regulate game-changing subsidies
Spain's top men’s professional football division La Liga has taken a complaint about France's Paris Saint-Germain team to EC referees, arguing the French club's…
Venice mayor suspends electric bus service after two accidents
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro announced a ban on La Linea's electric buses following two accidents involving its vehicles, one of which resulted in the deaths of 21…
EU countries fail to agree on extending glyphosate approval
European Union governments failed on Friday to give a decisive opinion on a proposal to extend by 10 years EU approval for the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient…
Borrell aims to rebuild trust that has ‘eroded’ between EU and China
The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on October 13 that China needs to restore confidence with Western investors.
Monarchy is outdated, says Belgium’s Prince Laurent
Prince Laurent of Belgium, brother of current King Philippe, said in an interview that the monarchy is a "medieval institution".
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a great moment of liberation – but does it also divide Germany’s former good times from the current bad times?
The Berlin Wall was one of the starkest and most tangible emblems of the Cold War divide between East and West.
Latvia’s new coalition government may struggle with economic reforms, experts predict
Latvia's economy has needed significant reform for some time but the recently installed coalition leadership might struggle to deliver it, analysts forecast.
EC’s Bulgarian gas-company loan a ‘massive cock-up’
The European Commission approved a €400 million loan to Bulgargaz, the Bulgarian state-owned gas company that is accused of creating "a backdoor for Russian gas"…
Baltic Sea gas pipeline damaged via ‘mechanical’ means, minister claims
A major pipeline located in the Baltic Sea was damaged via "mechanical" means, Estonia's defence minister has claimed.
ECR ‘green’ energy conference-speakers blow holes in wind-power industry
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group held a conference titled Wind energy - at what cost?
Former EC ‘green’ tsar Timmermans attacks Right for criticising green agenda
Frans Timmermans, the European Commission's former “green” tsar, has lashed out at the political Right for daring to criticise his green agenda.
Europe’s green bond market has a new big buyer in the EIB
There is a new buyer in Europe’s ESG corporate bond market as the European Investment Bank starts taking a bumper share of new green bond sales.
Italy won’t reduce vast debt pile anytime soon, IMF warns
Italy will now still be stuck with a debt burden above 140 per cent of gross domestic product even in five years’ time, according to the International Monetary…
Polish currency at risk from proposed EU treaty changes, says central bank chief
Proposed Treaty change “would mean the liquidation of the zloty, the end of our national currency, the end of our independence and the end of our own monetary…
Italy battles for flexible EU budget rules as bond spreads widen
Italy is lobbying its European Union partners with increasing urgency to approve more flexible budget rules, according to government sources, as bond spreads widen…
ANALYSIS: Strained France-Germany ties slow EU decision making
The sight of French President Emmanuel Macron and his cabinet drinking beers on a boat with their German counterparts in Hamburg this week will project an image…
Oil jumps, stocks drop on Middle East conflict: markets wrap
Oil surged more than five per cent and investors sought safety in gold, bonds and the dollar after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel sparked fears of a wider…
Most EU Member States not on target to reach Paris Agreement goals, says WWF
Seventeen European Union Member States are not putting enough wind farms in place to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, nature conservation organisation World…
Germany to fire up ‘brown coal’ power plants over energy shortage fears
Germany will reactivate a number of its "brown coal" power plants in the hopes of staving off winter energy shortages, media in the country is reporting.
EU debt now Euro 344 billion: auditors
In its latest report, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said that errors in the spending of funds taken from the European Union budget "increased significantly…
Poland’s economy has been a remarkable and underreported success story over the last 30 years – now both main parties appear ready to squander it
The economy is the big absentee from the Polish election campaign.
Pope Francis’s Laudate Deum is a political exhortation, not a religious treatise
Eight years after the encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis published another document, called an apostolic exhortation, to say what has been done - and what has not…
NATO urges arms production boost as warehouses ‘half full’
The arms industry needs to ramp up weapons and ammunition production as "the bottom of the barrel is now visible" due to the war in Ukraine, NATO Military Committee…
EU Formally Opens Anti-Subsidies Probe Into EVs Made in China
The European Union has formally launched an anti-subsidies probe into electric vehicles manufactured in China, setting in motion a one-year investigation that could…