Latest posts
Apple pushes tax evasion on to EU summit agenda
NEW
Tax evasion was put on to the EU summit’s agenda two months ago but the US Senate probe of Apple’s tax dealings in Ireland has pushed corporate tax avoidance to the forefront of leaders’ attention. Peter Spiegel and James Fontanella...
Dalli and the bribery scandal that won’t go away
NEW
Former EU health commissioner John Dalli addresses reporters after his October resignation It may not be as sexy as then-EU industry commissioner Günter Verheugen getting photographed on a nude beach with his female chief of staff. Or as consequ...
Reexamining the Cypriot bailout numbers. Again.
NEW
Cypriot European Parliament member Takis Hadjigeorgiou protests during the bailout debate Connoisseurs of the Brussels Blog, Cyprus and various forms of edible fruit will remember a tempest in a teapot that erupted last week over leaked documents we...
Syria: Fabius-Hague letter on lifting arms embargo
NEW
France's Laurent Fabius, left, and Britain's William Hague co-authored the letter to Cathy Ashton. This weekend’s announcement by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, that Washington is prepared to double the amount of non-lethal aid it is se...
Olli Rehn, Cyprus and fruit: reexamining the costs
NEW
Rehn: critics of Cyprus bailout are "comparing apples with pears and coming up with oranges." During a debate in the European Parliament this morning, Olli Rehn, the European Commission’s economic chief, got roughed up by MEPs lambasting the ha...
Reinhart-Rogoff recrunch the numbers
NEW
Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff have had a bad day. The two economic historians’ research, which implied that public debt overhangs can hamper economic growth, was perhaps one of the most cited pieces of work in recent years. Their advice that h...
The Google EU settlement: Full details
NEW
Google’s three year tussle with Brussels over its search business is almost over. Our report today outlines the substance of its pre-charge settlement with the European Commission. Once formally adopted, it will allow Google to avoid a fine, an...
More leaked Cyprus documents: first tranche €3bn
NEW
Remember when accusations of money laundering appeared to be Cyprus’ biggest problem? It was only a few weeks ago that Nicosia was pressured into agreeing an outside auditor to poke around its banks to ensure they are not havens for questionabl...
Leaked eurogroup paper: trouble ahead for Portugal?
NEW
Prime minister Pedro Passos Ceolho addresses the nation Sunday on Portugal's faltering bailout. Although Cyprus has pushed its way back into the news, the main event at Friday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Dublin is expected to be...
Cyprus: Oddities in leaked bailout documents
NEW
At Friday’s gathering of eurozone finance ministers in Dublin, the so-called eurogroup is expected to give a “political endorsement” of the details of Cyprus’ €10bn bailout programme, according to a senior EU official. Ah...
The FT/Reuters Dijsselbloem interview transcript
NEW
Dijsselbloem, centre, at a press conference Monday announcing the €10bn Cyprus bailout. The joint FT-Reuters interview with Dutch finance minister and eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem after the all-night talks to secure Cyprus’ &eur...
The Cyprus bailout blame game begins
NEW
The EU's Rehn, left, with Cypriot finance minister Sarris at the outset of Friday night's meeting With the eurozone’s €10bn Cyprus bailout now laid waste by the country’s parliament, the recriminations are likely to begin almost imme...
Hungary to Reding: “absolutely unacceptable”
NEW
Reding, far left, and Orbán, second from right, during a 2011 Commission meeting in Budapest. For Viviane Reding, it appears that any opportunity to step into a hornet’s nest is a good one. This time around, the media-savvy EU justice co...
Cypriot bank deposits hit in €10bn bailout deal
NEW
International lenders agreed to a €10bn bailout of Cyprus early Saturday morning after 10 hours of fraught negotiations, which included convincing Nicosia to seize €5.8bn from Cypriot bank deposits to help pay for the rescue, a first for an...
EU summit video: Wrapping up from Brussels
NEW
Brussels bloggers Peter Spiegel and Josh Chaffin sum up two days of summitry in Brussels in which EU leaders grappled with Europe’s ongoing economic malaise and its arms embargo in Syria. Continue reading »...
EU summit: At end of Day 1, a new austerity message?
NEW
Monti, right, and Hollande, centre, with Belgium's Elio Di Rupo during Day 1 of the summit For all the pre-summit posturing over the eurozone’s increasingly controversial austerity-led crisis response, participants said the EU summit’s fi...
EU summit video: A new EU-Syria policy?
NEW
Brussels bloggers Peter Spiegel and Joshua Chaffin discuss the unexpected Anglo-French push to lift the arms embargo for Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime. Continue reading »...
EU summit: Hollande, Cameron put Syria on agenda
NEW
Hollande made clear his Syria position had hardened in his remarks heading into the summit Will a debate on Syria hijack this seemingly uneventful EU summit? That is certainly the Anglo-French plan. Foreign ministers discussed it only a fortnight ago...
EU summit: Leaders meet amid austerity debate
NEW
Here is our main news story on FT.com European leaders arrived in Brussels on Thursday for a summit where the intensifying debate over the austerity-led response to the eurozone crisis was moving to centre stage even though the gathering was not expe...
EU summit: Malta’s Muscat calls for ‘common sense’
NEW
Finally the Socialists are talking. Most of the early arrivals to the pre-summit gathering of the Party of European Socialist in Brussels said next to nothing. The only statement from Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was a striking neon a...
