Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Ticker

Merkel and Macron talk trade in China phone-summit

French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel held a mini-summit by phone with Chinese president Xi Jinping Monday, to discuss "international trade, climate protection, and biodiversity" as well as the pandemic and "regional issues", Merkel's office said. It did not mention China's attacks on its Uighur minority or Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, which recently prompted EU sanctions and Chinese counter-sanctions, ruining prospects of a new China-EU investment treaty.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us