Austria and Finland have said their companies did no wrong in a case of suspected Russia-EU money laundering. But victims of the crime disagree. The sums involved are not so big - $150,000 in Austria and $199,500 in ...

Blanket criticism of austerity policy misses the positive effect it has on market confidence, EU economic affairs commissioner has said in the face of negative statements by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ...

Finland's foreign minister has said his government does not want the euro to break up, but that officials have to be prepared "for any eventuality." Meanwhile, Germany's diplomacy chief is rallying former ministers in a ...

Finland is rejecting a just-agreed deal on letting the eurozone's permanent bailout fund (ESM) buy government bonds on the open market, a change meant to lower Italy and Spain's borrowing costs. Markets' post-summit ...

The European Commission has said EU freedom of information rules should be tightened up because corporate lawyers and NGOs abuse the system. Its spokesman, Antony Gravili, told EUobserver on Wednesday (6 June) that most ...

Higher global food prices are hindering attempts to reach UN targets for proper nutrition and lower infant and mother mortality rates. Jos Verbeek - the author of a World Bank study on the problem - tells EUobserver how ...

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has invited select EU leaders and ministers to a "winter retreat" in Finland in what could be an opportunity to lobby for the top job in the eurozone. His invitation, sent out on ...

The European Parliament's new ethics code is about to be put the test, as the CEO of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce bids to keep his job while becoming an MEP. Risto E.J. Penttila, who came runner-up in the last EU ...

Finland should not sign up to the EU's new fiscal treaty, which is a "at best unnecessary and at worst harmful," Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja has said. Criticising the EU for its "terrible hurry" to sign and ...

Jean-Claude Piris, the former director general of the EU Council's legal service, who helped pen the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, Constitutional Treaty and Lisbon Treaties, referred to the Union's new fiscal compact as ...

The EU’s new fiscal compact is again getting a bumpy ride from a number of quarters in member states, with opposition parties in Ireland warning over loss of sovereignty and the leaders of the Czech Republic and Finland ...

There is no light at the end of the tunnel for Greece, according to economist Janis Emmanouilidis from the European Policy Centre. "Nobody can predict what will happen", he tells EUobserver over coffee.

The EU needs fewer presidents and a new budget 'tsar' if it is to emerge from its current economic and political crisis, Finnish Europe minister Alexander Stubb has said. Addressing students at the European College of ...

Finland has dropped its veto against Bulgaria and Romania's accession to the border-free Schengen area next year, leaving the Netherlands as the only blocking country, Romanian foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said ...