Author: staff
Norway’s Labor Party led by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre claimed victory in the Scandinavian country’s general election on Monday in a narrow but clear win by the centre-left bloc. With most votes counted the left-wing bloc — comprised of four parties — is set to hold a majority of 89 seats, surpassing the 85-seat threshold. The centre-right alliance, led by the Progress Party and Conservatives, currently holds 80 seats. Støre thanked his supporters cheering in Oslo on Monday evening and said the victory showed it was possible for Social Democratic parties to win elections in Europe, despite right-wing parties…
“The Draghi report has become the economic doctrine of the EU, and everything we’ve proposed since has been aligned with it,” Stéphane Séjourné, the Commission executive vice president charged with industrial strategy, told POLITICO. Still, he admitted that the “’Draghi effect’ too often fades when legislative texts are discussed by member states.” A report by the European Policy Innovation Council think tank found that only 11 percent of the Draghi report had been acted on. In the field of energy, no actions have been completed at all. “It’s national interests, it’s national policies, sometimes it’s party political,” said MEP Anna Stürgkh,…
By Euronews & Olga Lavrentyeva Published on 05/09/2025 – 11:44 GMT+2 European honey production recovered in 2022 to 280,000 tonnes after declining for four consecutive years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bee diseases, pesticide use and climate change, according to Dutch government organisation CBI. EU’s biggest producers of honey in 2022 were Romania, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Greece, France and Poland, CBI’s data shows. European honey production has fluctuated considerably in recent years. Overall, honey production showed a negative trend, falling from 274,600 tonnes in 2018 to 228,300 tonnes in 2021 before going up again in 2022. The decline in European…
“Overall, U.K. dairy — and cheesemakers in particular — have been presented with a worse deal than their EU competitors as a result of the U.S.-U.K. agreement,” said Rod Addy, director general of the Provision Trade Federation, which represents British cheesemakers. The difference between U.K. and EU tariff rates “suggests EU exporters, particularly [in] Ireland, may benefit relative to the U.K.,” he added. “Given that cheddar accounts for roughly three quarters of all U.K. dairy exports, that is highly significant.” The U.K. exported 9,855 metric tons of cheese and curd products in 2024 worth over £75 million, data from the…
More than half of respondents across the EU are in favour of further enlargement of the bloc, with nearly one in ten being very much in favour, according to the latest Eurobarometer study. In 23 member states, at least 50% of respondents are in favour of further enlargement, with the highest support in Sweden (79%), Denmark (75%), and Lithuania (74%). Ukraine, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Georgia, Albania, Kosovo, and Turkey are the ten countries wanting to join the EU. Support is also particularly high among young people. Younger respondents aged between 15 and 24 are most…
Published on 05/09/2025 – 15:45 GMT+2 •Updated 06/09/2025 – 19:02 GMT+2 Prévot told Euronews’ the Europe Conversation that his government remains resolutely opposed to the idea – despite a statement by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen reopening the matter a few days ago while in Estonia. “Frankly speaking… confiscating those Russian sovereign assets is really not an option for Belgium,” he said. Around €200 billions’ worth of Russian funds are immobilised as part of Western sanctions in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most of the money is held in the Euroclear depository which is…
Published on 05/09/2025 – 17:55 GMT+2 •Updated 17:58 The EU antitrust enforcer on Friday walloped US tech giant Google with a €2.95 billion fine for self-preferencing its ad exchange tool “AdX”, while dominating the market with its publisher ad server and its ad buying tools. “Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies,” EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said in a statement, adding: “Digital markets exist to serve people and must be grounded in trust and fairness.” Google…
Economists are keeping a close eye on the French political arena ahead of the 8 September vote of confidence, which could lead to the resignation of the government. Prime Minister François Bayrou has pledged the government’s confidence in an attempt to win MPs over to his budget recovery plan. France could be set to get its third government in a year, instability that does not please the markets. “Clearly, the markets are watching the situation and thinking about what it could mean. And of course, if the political turmoil were to worsen, that could put pressure on French bond yields.…
PiS’s former deputy prime minister and defense minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, further warned that Fitch’s outlook cut “signals increased risk for investors, which could lead to higher borrowing costs on international markets.” This, in turn, could squeeze the defense budget and force the government to look for savings or new funding sources, he added. Growing defense burden Poland is NATO’s top defense spender relative to economic output, with 4.7 percent of GDP currently earmarked for that purpose. The country has recently joined the $1 trillion economy club and is set to attend the G20 summit in Miami in 2026 as an…
The French are (rightfully) proud of their cheese. It is seen as a must for any decent family meal, a great economic asset for the country, and perhaps more surprisingly, a fantastic tool of diplomacy. That is why “diplomacy through cheese” will be one of the roundtables at an unprecedented two-day event by the French foreign ministry which aims to lift the veil on what diplomacy is and counter what is seen as a growing image deficit for the sector. But unlike say, Roquefort, which is undeniably French, this disconnect between diplomacy and the wider public affects most democratic societies…