PMQs: Starmer wins as he shrugs off Badenoch’s economic digs

by | Mar 12, 2025 | British politics, budget, cost of living, elections, farmers, immigration, inflation, insurance, interest rates, investment, policy, Politics, Rights, Space, Steel, Tariffs, tax, US, Westminster bubble

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through. What they sparred about: The economy, stupid. Despite fast-moving developments in...

French economy minister: Hitting 3 percent defense spending target may mean more taxes on rich

by | Mar 4, 2025 | banks, budget, Companies, Defense, Defense budgets, financial services, insurance, investment, Macron, military, parliament, security, tax, weapons

PARIS — French Economy Minister Eric Lombard said Tuesday that France’s plans to increase defense spending to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product may require more taxes on the rich and setting up defense-focused investment funds for private actors. “We can...

Merz won the German election. Here’s what it means for Europe.

by | Feb 24, 2025 | Agriculture, Antitrust, artificial intelligence, Asia, Banking, Batteries, Benchmarks, budget, Buildings, Central Banking, Climate change, cloud, Companies, Competition, Crisis, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, Data protection, Debt, Defense, Diesel, Digital, Dumping/Duties, elections, Electric vehicles, Energy, Exports, farmers, Farms, finance, financial services, food waste, gas, German election 2025, German politics, growth, Health data, hydrogen, Imports, industry, infrastructure, Innovation, insurance, Intelligence, investment, labor, law enforcement, Lobbying, Markets, Mercosur, migration, military, missiles, Mobility, National budgets, negotiations, omnibus, Organics, parliament, Patients, Platforms, Playbook, policy, Politics, Procurement, quantum, refugees, Renewable Energy, research, research and development, Rights, security, services, Space, startups, Sustainability, Tanks, tax, Technology, trade, transport, Waste, Water

BRUSSELS ― Conservative leader Friedrich Merz won the German election Sunday and is on track to take the reins of the EU’s largest economy. It’s not yet clear exactly what the new German government will look like — or how far Merz will be able to reshape German...

Germany’s labor market — long the envy of Europe — is losing its shine

by | Feb 17, 2025 | books, Central Banker, Companies, employment, Health professionals/workforce, industry, insurance, labor, manufacturing, Markets, research, Roads, services, Unemployment

For most of the last 20 years, the labor market reforms of ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder have ensured near-full employment in Germany. But the model is creaking ever more loudly, due to a broad-based industrial crisis and a widening skills gap. It’s just a matter of...

Russia lashes out at EU plans to seize its ‘shadow fleet’ in the Baltic Sea

by | Feb 11, 2025 | Aging, Baltic Sea, Baltics, Defense, Energy and Climate, Exports, finance, gas, insurance, Kremlin, Logistics, oil, Politics, Sanctions, tax, trade, war

BRUSSELS — Russia threatened retaliation if the EU follows through on new proposals to grab more Moscow-linked oil tankers in the Baltic Sea, warning it would treat any seizures as an attack. Alexei Zhuravlev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defense...

Inside the new plan to seize Russia’s shadow fleet

by | Feb 10, 2025 | Aging, Baltic Sea, Baltics, budget, Cargo, Cold War, Communications, critical infrastructure, Defense, Defense budgets, Energy, Energy and Climate, environment, Exclusive, gas, immigration, Imports, infrastructure, insurance, Intelligence, Kremlin, Logistics, Maritime, military, North Sea, oil, Politics, Ports, research, Rights, safety, Sanctions, security, Shipping, trade, transport, war, war in Ukraine

PORVOO, Finland — Secluded in a Finnish bay and barely visible between snow-flecked trees, a creaky tanker the length of two football fields quietly bobs up and down — a surprisingly tranquil scene considering the waves it has sent across Europe. Finnish authorities...