Governments are expected to agree on an EU mandate to open negotiations on an ambitious bilateral trade deal with the United States at the next meeting of EU trade ministers. The decision, which is expected on 14 June, ...

Special treatment of culture "makes sense," European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has said in relation to upcoming EU-US trade talks. Speaking at the European Business Summit in Brussels on Thursday (16 May ...

The EU's three-year-old ban on seal fur will remain intact after the bloc's highest court threw out a legal challenge by the Canadian Inuit and the country's fur trade. Unveiling its judgment on Thursday (25 April), the ...

MEPs are divided over whether the European culture sector should be excluded from talks on an EU-US trade agreement, following a vote on Thursday (25 April). Deputies on the Parliament's International Trade committee ...

US academic and former statesman, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has said Western democracies should create a trans-Atlantic trade bloc to counterbalance Chinese power. The 85-year-old, who was a US national security advisor at ...

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 ...

Iceland on Monday (15 April) became the first European country to sign a free trade agreement with China after six years of negotiations. A joint-statement notes the two sides want “to enhance their exchange and ...

The economic crisis is leading to a rise in the number of people being trafficked for sex, hard labour or organ donation, the EU commission said Monday (15 April,) but the vast majority of member states have failed to ...

In the lead-up to an inter ministerial meeting between EU and India next week, European trade negotiators continue to pressure India and other developing countries to accept so-called “free trade” agreements that favour ...

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), ...

Trade and tax are likely to take centre stage when US treasury secretary Jacob Lew visits EU leaders this week. Lew will meet with European Council and Commission heads Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso in ...

The recent decision to start negotiations on a EU-US Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement or Partnership is seen as a tremendous development in transnational cooperation. For one thing, it forms potentially the largest ...

Arms sales to European countries have fallen by over 20 percent since the financial crisis, according to a report released on Monday (18 March). An annual survey by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ( ...

The European Commission has agreed its negotiating mandate for an EU-US trade deal, paving the way for talks to begin before the summer break. Speaking on Tuesday (12 March), trade commissioner Karel de Gucht, who will ...

Israeli President Shimon Peres has urged the EU to put Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organisations, claiming that failure to do so would be an indication that the EU was prepared to tolerate its actions. Speaking ...

The head of the European Parliament has criticised governments for pressuring MEPs into signing off a deal on the EU budget for 2014-2020, but voiced enthusiastic support for free trade talks with the US. "The so-called ...

EU and US negotiators want to have a transatlantic trade and investment deal in place by 2015, but French politicians are wary of the pact. Hours after US President Barack Obama unveiled plans for talks aimed at a ...

US President Barack Obama has given the green light for comprehensive trade talks between the EU and the US, paving the way for what could become the largest single free trade zone in the world. Delivering his annual ...

EU leaders have thrown their weight behind talks aimed at securing a comprehensive trade agreement with the US. In a communique adopted following the EU budget summit on Friday (February 8), the European Council ...

Since the great global recession, all major advanced economies have resorted to series of liquidity injections to alleviate fiscal challenges. The unintended consequence is that the resulting massive monetary expansion ...

EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht is to meet Canadian leader Stephen Harper as the EU executive steps up its bid to secure the latest in a series of lucrative free trade agreements. De Gucht, who will meet Harper on ...

EU leaders at a 60-nation trade summit in Chile over the weekend said European businesses are sometimes subject to legal uncertainties in Latin American and Caribbean countries. “We're seeing an increase in Latin ...

For those suffering from eurozone crisis syndrome, it is easy to forget that an economic world exists beyond the EU's borders. For all the talk of recession and depression it would be a mistake to think that economies ...

The relationship between the US and Europe has historically been about diplomacy. But in these economically-straitened times, the focus on foreign policy has shifted. Indeed, negotiations on a bilateral trade accord are ...

One year on from the Olympics, the eyes of the world will again be on the United Kingdom next summer, as we host the G8 at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. Some people ask: does the G8 still matter, when we have a G20? ...

MEPs have rubber-stamped a trade deal with Israel despite a warning by their own legal services that it might clash with EU law. The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday (23 October) passed the so-called Acaa ( ...

MEPs have set the scene for an ill-tempered debate on Israeli settlements after the trade committee narrowly endorsed removing trade barriers for Israeli medical products. Centre-right deputies in the EPP group on ...

As tensions rise between Asia’s economic giants, China and Japan, over a small group of uninhabited mini-islands in the East China Sea, reaction from the EU remains conspicuous by its absence. The world’s second and ...

Apart from those spearheading the complaint, people within the European solar sector have expressed little enthusiasm for an EU investigation into the possible dumping of solar panels from China which may result in the ...

The EU is pressing ahead with talks on further bi-lateral carbon emissions agreements with a deal with Australia just announced. Isaac Valero-Ladron, spokesperson for EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, ...

Israel has complained about the EU's inclusion of parts of the town of Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut on a blacklist of "settlements." The European Commission on 3 August added three postal codes in the town to a register of ...

China and the EU are facing a trade war after a group of European solar panel producers this week lodged an anti-dumping complaint, sparking immediate threats of retaliation. The complaint comes from Germany's ...

The EU is today to confirm moves to strengthen economic ties with Israel, facing off criticism that trade conditions should be frozen due to the diplomatic impasse over Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. ...

The European Commission is set for another intellectual property rights clash with MEPs, after leaked documents revealed that proposals from the rejected counterfeit treaty Acta had been included in a draft trade ...

MEPs on the European Parliament's international trade committee on Thursday (21 June) voted to reject the controversial anti-counterfeit treaty Acta. With a majority of 19 to 12 endorsing the recommendation to reject ...

The demand for cheap cigarettes in Europe is fueling the manufacture and consumption of illicit tobacco at unprecedented levels. A report, released on Wednesday (20 June) by Philip Morris International (PMI), says ...

In what has been called “a definite turning point,” China’s direct investment in Europe over the last couple of years has multiplied by a factor 10, according to a new study. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht ...

The European Parliament adopted a non-legislative resolution on the imbalance of trade relations between the EU and China on Wednesday (23 May). The imbalance, claims the report drafted by Liberal MEP Marielle de Sarnez ...

Opponents of Acta, the controversial anti-counterfeiting treaty up for vote in the European Parliament in July, say, among other things, that it would stifle innovation. Advocates say the exact opposite. According to ...

China has highlighted access to arms technology and less criticism on human rights as two priorities on a visit to the EU capital by its new-leader-in-waiting, Li Keqiang. The country's ambassador to the EU, Wu Hailong, ...

The European Parliament on Friday (20 April) overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution condemning the re-nationalisation of Spanish majority-owned energy firm YPF. The parliament claims the Argentine move was ...

The European Union will seek to ease economic sanctions against Burma in recognition of recent pro-democratic reforms, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday (17 April). "Everything we see points to a ...

Day by day, many of us are unable to shop online in and from another member states. Some of us have had bad experiences when they suddenly had to pay for healthcare on a trip abroad, others were unable to open a bank ...

The debate on the controversial anti-counterfeit treaty, Acta has moved to the European Parliament, with MEPs set to pose their own questions to the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice. At the first meeting of ...

EU member states have failed to name tar sands a high polluting energy source following intense lobbying by oil companies and Canada but green groups and the European Commission hope the politicisation of the discussion ...

EU measures to cut CO2 emissions and improve the climate have sparked outrage in the global aviation industry and most recently in Canada, home to the world’s second largest fossil fuel reserves. The Guardian newspaper ...

At a time of crisis, the EU seems to be interested in improving relations with emerging India. EU High Representative Chief Catherine Ashton recently wrapped up a 2-day visit to India, where she met with top Indian ...