The UK has asked EU countries to designate the military wing of Lebanese group Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. A British foreign ministry spokesman told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday (21 May): "We are calling for ...

French President Francois Hollande has called for the creation of a eurozone government as a solution to the wide-spread recession that threatens "the very identity" of Europe. Hollande spelled out his views on Europe ...

French President Francois Hollande, battling record unpopularity, a weak economy and high unemployment, on Wednesday (15 May) attempted to change the narrative of a country and president helplessly buffeted by outside ...

The eurozone's planned banking union is "urgent" and should be created within the current EU treaties, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday (7 May) after previously suggesting a treaty change was ...

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has defended Germany's Angela Merkel in an increasingly nervous debate on EU austerity. Speaking in an interview with German weekly Die Welt am Sonntag at the weekend (5 May ...

France has moved centre stage in the crisis, after EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said that the country would fall into recession in 2013 and needs two more years to bring down its budget deficit. Presenting ...

A personal attack on German leader Angela Merkel by President Francois Hollande's Socialist party has prompted fierce debate in France. The attack came in a draft policy paper designed to be published at a party ...

The French government has dismissed as "naive" suggestions that a transatlantic trade deal with the US could substantially benefit the EU economy and take it out of crisis. Speaking on Thursday (18 April) following a ...

French President Francois Hollande and eight of his 37 ministers are millionaires, according to the national "striptease" of politicians' assets published on Monday (15 April). Hollande himself declared already last ...

French leader Francois Hollande has promised to "eradicate" tax havens in the EU and in the wider world, after his approval rating fell to 26 percent following a tax evasion scandal. Speaking on national TV on Wednesday ...

France and Slovenia moved a step closer to the eye of the eurozone storm after being censured by the European Commission for having "macro-economic balances." The commission's reports, published on Wednesday (10 April), ...

All members of France's Socialist government are to publish their financial assets within days as President Francois Hollande struggles to overcome a tax fraud scandal involving his former budget minister. Prime ...

French President Francois Hollande will Friday (6 April) receive Germany's opposition leader and chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck in Paris after recently admitting there is "friendly tension" with Angela Merkel ...

France's ongoing scandal over its tax-evading budget minister is threatening to engulf Francois Hollande's government, raising questions about who knew what and what it means for a President who came to power promising ...

Britain and France have said the only way to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to talk is to threaten him with arming rebels. The foreign ministers of the EU's top military powers - William Hague and Laurent Fabius - ...

In what could prove a distraction from her role in helping to save the euro, French police on Wednesday (20 March) raided the Paris flat of International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde. She denies any ...

France has called for the EU foreign service to hire a new cadre of security experts and to create consular departments in its overseas embassies. It put forward its ideas in two non-papers, seen by EUobserver, which ...

Leaders of the world's richest economies at a G20 summit in Moscow have vowed not to start a currency war by managing their exchange rates. In the summit communique released on Saturday following talks by finance ...

France predicts it will fail to meet EU budgetary targets this year, but the European Commission is unlikely to take action. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told national TV on Wednesday (13 February) that the ...

The German government has moved quickly to shoot down a plea by French President Francois Hollande for the EU to agree measures to control the euro's exchange rate. Government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Wednesday ...

Francois Hollande is ready to accept a cut in the EU budget provided that it does not weaken the European economy and protects the poorest countries, the French President told MEPs. Speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday (5 ...

EU leaders gather in Brussels at the end of the week (4-10 February) for a second attempt to agree the bloc's budget framework for 2014-2020. At stake is how to spend the around 1 trillion euro over the seven year ...

A senior French military officer has said France is better off without Nato or EU help to "reconquer" north Mali. Colonel Michel Goya, a serving officer and an expert at the Institut de Recherche Strategique de l'Ecole ...

Germany and France will table joint proposals for deeper eurozone integration by May and are "working closely" to get a deal on EU's seven-year budget next month, the two leaders said on Tuesday (22 January) during ...

The leaders of Germany and France encouraged young people to be "utopian" and dream of a European federal state with common taxation, on the eve of festivities on Tuesday (22 January) marking the 50th anniversary of the ...

Franco-German relations are about to be celebrated in style. The entire French government, most of the Assemblee nationale, plus a handful of senators – about 600 people all told - will decamp to Berlin on Monday (21 ...

Jean Claude Juncker is to bow out as President of the Eurogroup this week when the 17 eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels for their first meeting of 2013. Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem who already ...

EU foreign ministers on Thursday (17 January) are holding a crisis meeting on Mali, after one British citizen was killed and 41 internationals taken hostage at a British-Norwegian gas plant in Algeria in retaliation ...

President Francois Hollande has said French troops in Mali are there to do much more than stopping rebels from taking Bamako. The French leader told press on a visit to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (15 January) that: "We have ...

Fellow EU countries and the US have backed France's decision to bomb rebels in north Mali. The French attacks began on Friday (11 January) when Mali appealed to France, the former colonial power in the region, for help ...

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). ...

US lawmakers remain divided over the so-called 'fiscal cliff' which would usher in spending cuts and tax rises worth $560 billion unless a cross-party deal can be brokered to cut the US budget deficit. Failure to reach ...

French president Francois Hollande suffered a major political blow over the weekend when his flagship policy to heavily tax the very rich was struck down. The Constitutional Council on Saturday (29 December) ruled that ...

Moody's ratings agency on Friday (30 November) downgraded the eurozone's two bailout funds following a recent similar move on France, the second-largest contributor to the rescue funds. The European Stability Mechanism, ...

Moody's on Monday (19 November) became the second ratings agency to strip France of its top rating, citing continued economic woes and lack of competitiveness, a blow to President Francois Hollande who tried to fix the ...

The finance ministers of France and Germany on Tuesday (13 November) strongly denied there were any friction about how Paris is tackling the country's economic problems. "It is extraordinary that we get questions on ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned France it needs to cut labour costs and taxes or else risk falling behind Italy and Spain, which are undergoing deep reforms. "The growth outlook for France remains ...

Thousands of EU officials will return to Brussels wearier than usual on Friday (26 October) but, on balance, will probably be grateful for a Parliament decision that saved them from another round-trip. The latest act in ...

Thursday's (18 October) gathering of EU leaders is being billed - by the Germans at least - as a "stepping stone" summit that should lead to firm decisions in December on how to deepen eurozone political integration. ...

The European Parliament is ready to hang tough with governments in upcoming talks on the seven year EU budget framework from 2014-2020, demanding "significant increases" in funding for research and development, small ...

France will become the latest country to ratify the EU's fiscal compact treaty after President Francois Hollande faced down his first parliamentary rebellion and saw the agreement passed by a large majority in the ...

French President Francois Hollande faced his first serious public backlash after up to 50,000 lined the streets of Paris on Sunday (30 September) in protest against his €37 billion austerity budget. Organisers of the ...

France's Socialist government on Friday (28 September) unveiled €30bn worth tax hikes and spending cuts in a bid to bring the public deficit in line with EU rules next year. Dubbed a "combat budget" by Prime Minister ...

Marc Goldbrenner, a top salesman at Lecobel, a real estate agent in the Belgian and EU capital, says he has two or three meetings a week with French "fiscal exiles" keen to flee President Francois Hollande's new rich ...

The French leader and French foreign minister have spoken out in favour of new EU sanctions against Iran. French President Francois Hollande told press after his first-ever speech at the UN's annual meeting in New York, ...

The UK hosts all the "world class" universities in Europe according to a study by QS, a US-based firm which helps business graduates to get jobs. The world ranking, out on Tuesday (11 September), put Cambridge ...

French Socialist President Francois Hollande has outlined a two-year plan to overhaul the country's stagnating economy and to boost employment. The President conceded the task ahead to stimulate growth and restore ...

French minister of interior Manuel Valls announced on Thursday (16 August) that France might consider introducing a Roma work-related insertion programme when ministers meet next week to discuss the issue. The programme ...

Roma in France’s northern city of Lille were expelled from their camps over the weekend as police dismantled the settlements, despite promises by President Francois Hollande to end the practice. The police raids started ...