Free Republic

While British Prime Minister Theresa May celebrated reaching a deal with the EU over Brexit, an anti-Brexit pressure group said it had betrayed Brits living in Germany and the EU. […] The initial deal brought smiles to the face of May, who was probably in danger of losing her job if talks had broken down again, but left many British citizens living in Germany and other EU countries less than happy. While the deal guarantees their rights to remain and work in Germany, the agreement does not guarantee them the right to continue moving freely around Europe, as is the...

According to a study by the EU, which has been published by the Funke Mediengruppe, Germany will have to increase its contribution to the EU budget by €3.8 billion annually after the UK leaves. The additional costs will add up to a 16 percent increase in Germany’s annual contribution to EU finances, the report predicts. “Brexit doesn’t just increase the financial weight on the other 27 EU members; it also changes how the contributions will be divided up,” the report continues. Germany, along with the Netherlands and Sweden currently benefits from a reduction in its contributions, which were agreed along...

France said Thursday it would temporarily raise taxes on the profits of big companies in order to meet its deficit target after being hit with a hefty bill for an unlawful levy on dividends. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government has pledged to bring the deficit within the EU limit of 3.0 percent of GDP for the first time in a decade this year. That goal, however, appeared to be in jeopardy after the state was ordered to pay back €10 billion ($11.6 billion) in taxes on dividend payments imposed by Macron’s Socialist predecessor François Hollande. Ruling that the tax was...

French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar say they are ready to discuss the contentious issue of taxing internet giants after a meeting in Paris. Macron is leading the tax charge in Europe, saying it’s not fair that internet companies don’t pay taxes where they make most of their money. Countries that serve as tax shelters for companies like Apple, including Ireland, have resisted the proposed measure. …

EU anti-trust regulators have raided the offices of automaker BMW in Munich, the company said, in a fresh blow to the German car industry already hit by the Dieselgate scandal. The European Commission, which refused to confirm the company targeted, said it “can confirm that as of October 16, 2017, its officials carried out an unannounced inspection at the premises of a car manufacturer in Germany.” The inspection was related to “concerns that several German car manufacturers may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices,” a statement said. The commission added that Daimler was cooperating...

Wolfgang Schäuble, who is due to become the next president of Germany’s lower house of parliament, on Saturday made his last appearance at the annual conference of the International Monetary Fund as Germany’s finance minister. During his speech, Schäuble reiterated his warnings against protectionist economic policies and appealed for closer trade cooperation among countries. “We should all be worried about the weak growth of global trade and the increasing anti-free trade rhetoric,” he said. “We need more openness rather than less.” […] Schäuble, the chairman of the G20 finance group this year, said he believed the backlash against globalization was...

The United States does not support a French proposal to tax the gross revenues of international tech corporations like Google and Amazon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday. The remarks come as European officials say Washington has softened in recent days on a point that has caused sharp transatlantic tensions in recent years. European authorities have targeted multinational companies that avoid taxation by seeking out cozy arrangements in low- and no-tax jurisdictions. […] In September of this year, French authorities proposed that the European Union impose taxes on gross corporate revenues because they say they have been unable to...

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned against “national selfishness” in world politics on Thursday in his first speech at the United Nations General Assembly. “This worldview describes the world as an arena, a kind of battleground, in which everyone is fighting against everyone else and in which everyone has to assert their own interests, either alone or in alliances of convenience,” Gabriel told world leaders. “The motto ‘Our country first’ only leads to more national confrontations and less prosperity. In the end, there will only be losers,” he said, in a thinly veiled reference to US President Donald Trump’s oft-repeated...

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire accused US internet giants on Friday of escaping their fair share of taxes in Europe, as he pushed the EU to urgently address the issue. Big EU countries have become increasingly frustrated that internet giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google escape paying a fair tax by basing their operations in lower-tax EU states such as Ireland and Luxembourg. “We need to make sure in Europe that all companies are paying their fair share of tax, that is the meaning of our initiative,” Le Maire told reporters on the sidelines of talks with...

During a meet-the-voter TV show on Thursday night, a cleaning lady asked Chancellor Angela Merkel a question that raised the issue of old-age poverty — leaving her struggling to come up with an answer. “In Austria, there is a citizens’ insurance scheme. Everyone pays into it,” Petra Vogel told the Chancellor on a live show on public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday. Vogel, a cleaner in a hospital in Bochum and trade unionist, went on to explain that if Germany had this too, she would not have to live in poverty as a pensioner. After more than 40 years of work,...

Vacuum cleaners sold in Europe are to be more cost- and energy-efficient, as a result of EU rules which outlaw new vacuum cleaners using more than 900 watts and emitting more than 80 decibels. Updated ecodesign requirements will lower appliances’ maximum power, annual energy consumption and noise levels. The European Commission says it is is making use of latest state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that European consumers have the most energy efficient products available. They will also increase their minimum ability to pick up dust. […] For Europe as a whole, more efficient vacuum cleaners will put it in a position...

Despite the turbulence of the Weimar years, Germany has followed a steady capitalist economic model since the end of the Second World War. But that doesn’t mean people like the idea, a new study shows. Contrary to the US, where belief in capitalism is as entrenched as hot dogs and baseball, Germany has always had a more complicated relationship to the philosophy of competitive markets. This is, after all, the country that gave us the founding communist thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. And a study published by Statista and YouGov on Tuesday shows that only 16 percent of Germans...

The German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries on Monday slammed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia as being “against international law.” The planned new US sanctions are set to hit German and European companies which have business interests in Russia. “We see that as being against international law, plain and simple,” Zypries, of the Social Democrats (SPD), told the Funke Mediengruppe. “The Americans can’t punish German companies because they have business interests in another country.” The Economy Minister said that she did not want this to be the start of a trade war with the US, but emphasized that...

There’s a chance Britain won’t leave the European Union, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday, arguing that stopping Brexit is “necessary” to avoid severe economic damage. In an article published by Blair’s Institute for Global Change, he wrote that EU leaders might be willing to “reform and meet us half way” to keep the U.K. in the bloc. He said that might include compromise on freedom of movement — a key EU principle that conflicts with Britain’s goal of placing limits on immigration. […] Blair also told Sky News that “every day is bringing us fresh evidence” of Brexit’s...

Angela Merkel’s cabinet agreed on Wednesday to tighten scrutiny on takeovers of companies in strategic industries by buyers outside the EU, the Economy Ministry said, reacting to Europe-wide disquiet over Chinese takeovers. New regulations will allow Berlin more time to probe takeover bids, especially in sectors affecting critical infrastructure, and extend the range of deals eligible for examination by the authorities. “We remain one of the most open economies in the world, but we also have an eye on fair competition. We owe that to our companies,” Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said in a statement. “In the future, reporting requirements...

The head of France’s biggest employers federation said on Friday that President Emmanuel Macron represented the last chance to reform the country’s rigid labor market, but did not want the country to end up like the US or the UK. […] While his plans have leftist trade unions seething and warning of mass street protests, the leaders of France’s big companies are unsurprisingly right behind him. “We need to get going quickly,” said Pierre Gattaz, president of France’s employers federation MEDEF, an organization that is reviled by many among France’s hard left. “France won’t have another opportunity. Now we have...

The German government will set up a new state-owned company which will provide startups with the money they need to transform a great idea into a successful business, Spiegel reports. As of 2018, startups will be able to apply to a new state-owned fund for the venture capital needed to accelerate the growth of their businesses, according to a government report seen by Spiegel. The company will be a subsidiary of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the state-owned development bank, and is set to fill part of an estimated annual hole of €500 million to €600 million in venture capital...

Barcelona’s poorest district is to pilot a “basic income” scheme that will see residents given grants to lift them above the breadline in a ground-breaking social experiment. The Barcelona district of Besós has been picked to test a €13 million European Union funded pilot scheme investigating “innovative and creative solutions” to urban poverty. The Catalan capital has been chosen alongside Utrecht in the Netherlands and the Finnish city of Helsinki to test the scheme, which will see the poorest residents in each chosen district given grants for two years to lift them above the breadline. In the B-Mincome experiment, 1,000...

Billionaire financier George Soros said Thursday the European Union is in an "existential crisis" and needs to be reinvented in the face of growing threats. "The reinvention would have to revive the support that the European Union used to enjoy," the Hungarian-born Soros said at the Brussels Economic Forum. Such reinvention would have to review the past and explain to European citizens what went wrong and then make proposals to make things right. Soros welcomed a German idea to cut European funds aimed at reducing income inequalities at the regional level for those countries disrespecting the rule of law. Both...

H.E. Ambassador Yang Yanyi is head of the Chinese Mission to the EU.(The Belt and Road Forum) has attracted broad participation of some 1,500 officials, scholars, entrepreneurs and people from financial institutions and media from more than 130 countries, principals and representatives from over 70 international organizations. […] At a time when the foundation for global economic recovery is not solid, trade investment remains weak, and growth impetus unstable, this Forum, with “Strengthening International Cooperation and Co-building the ‘Belt and Road’ for Win-win Development” as its central theme, will offer an excellent opportunity to take stock of what has been...