Free Republic

The head of the European Commission says he wants an official commemoration of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who led Germany to reunification and was a strong backer of the continent’s unity. Jean-Claude Juncker told Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he will personally push for a “European act of state” for Kohl, who was chancellor from 1982 to 1998, but didn’t give details. […] Juncker said that “without Helmut Kohl, the euro would not exist.” …

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...

With Germany raking in more taxes due to strong economic performance, the leader of its liberal party has suggested state officials are enriching themselves at the cost of the taxpayer. “The greed of the state has taken on kleptocratic characteristics,” Christian Lindner, head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) told Handelsblatt on Wednesday. A kleptocracy is a form of government in which officials corruptly use public funds for personal gain. “The yearly tax intake of the state is set to be €100 billion higher in 2020 than this year, if we don’t act. For the FDP, it is clear that...

Washington has a prime opportunity to slap 100 percent tariffs on key EU exports. Iconic European products ranging from Roquefort cheese to Vespa scooters will soon be in Donald Trump’s sights.The billionaire property tycoon won the U.S. presidency on a highly protectionist agenda and vowed to slash the country’s eye-watering deficits with leading trade partners. While China and Mexico have borne the brunt of his early threats, he now has a prime opportunity to box out some of Europe’s most famous exports. Next Wednesday, the U.S. trade representative will hold a public hearing on slapping an eventual 100 percent import...

Germany has completed an effort to bring home 300 metric tons (330.7 tons) of gold stashed in the United States, part of a plan to repatriate gold bars kept abroad during the Cold War. The German central bank said it brought 111 tons of gold back from the Federal Reserve in New York last year, concluding in September — the last of 300 tons slated for return. […] Once the transfers are completed, Frankfurt will hold half of Germany’s 3,378 tons of reserve gold, with the rest in New York and London. […] During the Cold War, West Germany kept...

The European Union declared the Trump administration a “threat” on Tuesday, laying bare what many Europeans think privately and setting the stage for increased tension between the US and EU. European Union President Donald Tusk’s diplomatic bombshell listed the Trump administration as a threat alongside China, Russia, terrorism and radical Islam, adding that “worrying declarations by the new American administration all make our future highly unpredictable.” “The change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation; with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy,” Tusk said in a letter...

A top economic adviser to US President Donald Trump bashed Germany for exploiting an undervalued euro to take advantage of its trading partners, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The public rebuke of a major trading partner is the latest example of the brash tactic that has become a feature of the new US administration, with Trump himself using public attacks and Twitter to criticize businesses and allies, including Mexico. Peter Navarro, who advised Trump during the campaign and heads the White House’s new National Trade Council, said in an interview with the FT that Germany “continues to exploit other countries...

Germany’s Welt Am Sonntag newspaper has accused British finance minister Phillip Hammond of threatening to drastically slash corporation tax to turn the UK into an offshore tax haven if it is not given a trade deal. In an interview with Hammond, headlined “British finance minister threatens EU partners”, the paper quotes Hammond saying that Britain could be forced to change its economic model if negotiations went badly. “The British people are not going to lie down and say, ‘too bad’,” he said, when asked if the UK could slash corporation taxes. “If we have no access to the European market,...

The European Central Bank should begin winding down its expansive monetary policy in 2017 as inflation returns in the eurozone, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview on Friday. “It would probably be right if the ECB starts daring to head for the exit this year,” Schäuble told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper — although he acknowledged it would be a “difficult task”. The ECB has fixed interest rates at record lows in the 19-nation single currency area, as well as offering cheap loans to banks and buying up tens of billions of euros per month of government and...

Former Bundesbank president Hans Tietmeyer, a key architect of the euro who oversaw its introduction in Germany, has died at the age of 85, the central bank announced Wednesday. Tietmeyer ran the mighty Bundesbank from 1993 to 1999, a period that straddled the aftermath of German reunification as well as the launch of the single European currency and the creation of the European Central Bank. […] A fierce defender of the independence of central banks, Tietmeyer was credited with ensuring that the same principle was enshrined in the statutes of the ECB, which was modeled in large part on the...

Britain’s exit from the European Union — whenever it takes place — is a cloud over the economic outlook for both the country and its major trading partners within the 19-country eurozone. Further evidence emerged Wednesday to show that businesses across the single currency bloc are fretting over the risks, while those in Britain appear to have gotten over the initial shock of the vote to leave on June 23 thanks partly to the plunge in the pound. The drop in the currency, which this week hit a 31-year low against the dollar, makes British exports more competitive. Both the...

Germany’s economy ministry believes a Donald Trump presidency would severely damage the U.S. economy, according to an internal memorandum reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday. The ministry expects “shrinking gross domestic product, fewer jobs and higher unemployment,” in the United States if the Republican candidate were to implement his campaign pledges, the magazine cited the memo as saying. […] Trump’s pledges are “not feasible”, Spiegel cited the memorandum as saying. Moreover, the plans would violate international or U.S. law and could be “no basis for a realistic economic policy.” …

The EU Commission opened an in-depth probe into a Polish tax on the retail sector Tuesday, concerned that the progressive rates based on turnover give companies with low turnover an unfair advantage. The European Commission’s injunction requires Poland to suspend the application of the tax until the Commission has concluded its assessment. This follows a decision the Commission took in July this year on a progressive turnover-based tax on the retail sector in Hungary, which the Commission found to be in breach of EU state aid rules, because it granted a selective advantage to companies with low turnover over their...

The European Commission has taken a step towards establishing a common EU list of tax havens, but critics fear that EU capitals may hijack the show and delete allied nations from the record. The EU executive on Thursday (15 September) presented a method for verifying which countries outside the bloc qualify as tax havens (the commission says tax evasion problems inside the EU are dealt with under other, binding legislation). […] The US state of Delaware is a well-known “onshore” tax paradise. The EU, however, is basing its analysis of the US as a whole, meaning it could avoid being...

The European Central Bank left its stimulus measures on hold Thursday and warned governments in the 19 country euro currency union that they need to do more to help the economy grow and push up inflation to healthier levels. The bank kept its key interest rates unchanged and decided against extending the duration of its existing bond-buying stimulus program. Bank President Mario Draghi seemed relatively confident about the economy and less inclined to hint at more stimulus than some analysts had expected. Instead, he used his news conference to urge governments to do their part. He said that implementation of...

European Union leader Donald Tusk urged Britain on Thursday to hurry up and get on with finalizing its divorce from the bloc. Tusk, president of the EU’s governing Council, met Prime Minister Theresa May in London for talks about the fallout from Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the EU. Ahead of the meeting, Tusk told May that “the ball is now in your court” to start negotiations. He said the process should begin as soon as possible. …

The 19-country eurozone lost some economic momentum in August, largely because of a slowdown in Germany, a closely watched survey showed Monday, days ahead of another possible stimulus package from the European Central Bank. Financial information company IHS Markit said its purchasing managers’ index — a broad gauge of economic activity — for the eurozone fell to a 19-month low of 52.9 points in August from 53.2 the previous month. The fall was unexpected as the initial estimate for August was 53.3. In spite of the fall, the eurozone is still growing, albeit sluggishly as anything above 50 indicates expansion....

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday stressed her continued support for an EU-US trade agreement being negotiated but recently declared dead by her deputy and by a French minister. “It is in our interest not to fall behind other world regions, such as the Asian region which has concluded such an agreement with the United States,” the conservative leader told public broadcaster NDR. “I believe that such an agreement would mean job opportunities for us, and we urgently need jobs in Europe.” …

Manufacturing in Britain rebounded in August from a slump in the immediate aftermath of the shock vote to leave the European Union, an indication that the economy may be weathering the uncertainty better than expected. A measure of business activity in manufacturing, the purchasing managers’ index, jumped to 53.3 points from 48.8 in July. The index is on a 100-point scale, with figures above 50 representing growth. The survey found that a plunge in the pound had helped companies selling abroad. Also, business was resuming after being frozen in July amid the initial surprise over the vote and political chaos...

More than 125,000 Germans have filed the largest citizen lawsuit in German history against the controversial proposed CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU. The lawsuit’s power of attorney letters filled some 70 boxes and were brought by truck on Wednesday to Germany’s top court located in Karlsruhe, the Constitutional Court. The proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would eliminate about 98 percent of the tariffs between the EU and Canada, but it has been condemned by opponents who say it will too greatly expand the power of corporations and may lower certain EU standards for things like...