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Olaf Scholz said his former finance minister had "betrayed my confidence" and had put the interests of his party base over those of the country.

German coalition collapses after Scholz fires key minister

By: EBR | Thursday, November 7, 2024

Germany’s governing coalition has collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired a key minister and said he would call a vote of confidence in his government early next year

Most EU governments have chosen to appease anti-migrant sentiment.

Europeans ignore the need for migrants at their own peril

By: EBR | Tuesday, November 5, 2024

When historians look back on pivotal moments that reshaped Europe, they may well choose 2015-16

The United Kingdom was the top destination, followed by the United States, which saw a 9% increase due to higher olive oil prices.

EU agri-food trade balance remains stable

By: EBR | Monday, November 4, 2024

The latest agri-food trade report published today by the European Commission showed that in the January-May 2024 period, cumulative EU agri-food exports reached €97.4 billion

“No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change,” said Dr Friederike Otto, from Imperial College London, who leads an international group of scientists who try to understand the role that warming plays in these type of events.

Scientists say climate change made Spanish floods worse

By: EBR | Thursday, October 31, 2024

While scientists are reluctant to say any single extreme event was caused by climate change, researchers have been quick to point out the role that rising temperatures have had in making the Spanish floods worse

“We have to do more than just show our concern (about the conflict in Gaza),” Borrell who is also of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s PSOE (S&D) said while noting that Palestinian recognition and the two-state solution are the only options for long-lasting peace and stability in the region.

EU’s Borrell urges international community to ‘pressure’ Israel for a ceasefire

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 29, 2024

The international community must pressure on Israel to achieve a ceasefire and "end the tragic situation" in the Middle East, EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said

In 2025, German GDP will expand by just 0.8%. Of the world’s largest and richest economies, only Italy is forecast to grow as slowly.

Grave Challenges for the German Economy: 14 Facts

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Germany is currently experiencing its first two-year recession since the early 2000s

The three countries called on the Commission to introduce a special tax on the excess profits of electricity producers and traders and prioritise the development of energy interconnections in Southeast Europe.

Experts dash hopes of EU compensation for high electricity prices in the Balkans

By: EBR | Friday, October 25, 2024

Leading Bulgarian energy experts have dashed the government’s hopes of receiving compensation from Brussels for high electricity prices as recently requested by Bulgaria, Romania and Greece

Efforts to shore up tax receipts across the European Union are also recipes for conflict.

To soak the rich, the EU’s rival taxmen

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 23, 2024

The heat is on for taxes

Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, Portuguese Defence Minister Nuno Melo said that Portugal wanted to make "a very large investment" in the defence industry and "also open up this area to private investment", namely the "more technological areas", with Spain being "a large market" and a source of potential investors.

Spain, Portugal call for new approach to EU-Africa relations

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Spain and Portugal called for a new EU approach to relations with Africa at a ministerial meeting in Madrid

Commenting on her absence, Meloni said she "could not attend under any circumstances" as she had a pre-scheduled diplomatic visit to the Middle East, including a stop in Lebanon.

Meloni’s no-show at Berlin summit raises concerns over Italy’s global role

By: EBR | Friday, October 18, 2024

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will miss Friday’s high-level meeting in Berlin

In the past, European interventions may not have always been an unmitigated success, but Europe was there at least to be accounted for. With geopolitical storms gathering speed, the EU seems to have lost its foreign policy.

The EU Needs an Interagency Process for Foreign Policy

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Is European diplomacy still relevant ?

In Italy, Meloni’s ECR heads a coalition government with Matteo Salvini’s Lega (Patriots for Europe) and Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia (EPP) - an alliance she seems eager to replicate at the EU level.

Meloni keen to form conservative front with EPP, Patriots

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Italian Prime Minister and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) leader Giorgia Meloni appears to be looking to unite the right-wing European People’s Party (EPP) group and the new far-right Orban-led Patriots for Europe group

The new commission looks set to push this trend further in many respects. External funding will increasingly be channelled through the Global Gateway, the EU’s initiative for infrastructure investment designed to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The New European Commission’s Distorted Democracy Agenda

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 8, 2024

With the clear primacy of security issues in the new European Commission’s priorities, the place of democracy support in the EU’s geopolitical toolbox looks increasingly uncertain

This is the broad view of Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank and its Senior Vice President for Development Economics.

A decade of slow growth? The World Bank’s chief economist on the global economic outlook

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 2, 2024

“The global economy is doing better than we expected just six months ago, but it’s doing much worse than it was six years ago”

Much of the speculation has centred on the trade dimension of the relationship, understandably so, given the hand the UK dealt itself with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) - one of the two core agreements, alongside the Withdrawal Agreement, that now govern the EU-UK relationship.

Starmer’s EU-UK ‘reset’ faces reality check after botched divorce

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 2, 2024

As UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first official meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen takes place in Brussels on Wednesday, an unfamiliar optimism is in the air

By choosing Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president, Kaja Kallas as EU high representative, and Antonio Costa as its own president, the European Council came up with a leadership team that—unlike the present one—might actually be capable of working together.

The EU’s Crisis of Confidence

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 1, 2024

On the face of it, the EU’s institutional transition of 2024 has been going well

In her email, Karystianou, a paediatrician who has also spoken two times in Parliament – calls on EU leaders to think twice about the candidate proposed by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Email from Athens set to cause von der Leyen, Metsola headaches

By: EBR | Monday, September 30, 2024

An email sent to the European Commission and Parliament chiefs is expected to stir the waters ahead of the upcoming hearing of Greece’s commissioner candidate for the transport portfolio

Meanwhile, several, mostly small countries, called for the EU to return to the much more strict rules that existed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crisis

Twenty EU countries to call for single market push after Letta, Draghi ‘sidelined’ integration goals

By: EBR | Thursday, September 26, 2024

EU industry ministers are meeting to discuss Europe’s competitiveness

The 2020 ‘Farm to Fork’ package aimed to contain their rival interests within the EU’s ambitious ‘Green Deal’ strategy on climate change, but remains beset by deadlocks.

Farm policy is a dangerous hot spot that’s also an EU blind spot

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 25, 2024

In all the brouhaha over Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘gender balanced’ EU Commission, scant attention has been paid to the next Agriculture Commissioner

After a polarizing election, Woidke will have a hard time building a coalition with the CDU, who came in fourth. Together, they will have forty-four seats in the state parliament, one seat short of a majority. Either Woidke opts for a minority coalition or brings in the BSW.

Germany’s Fragmentation Weakens Europe

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Chancellor Scholz’s party secured a narrow win in the state of Brandenburg. But the victory cannot disguise Germany’s political and economic woes that also affect the EU

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