Friday

29th Mar 2024

Ticker

EU asylum requests were climbing before Ukraine war

EU states received 648,000 requests for asylum in 2021, with Syrians (117,000) and Afghans (102,000) the largest segments, the bloc's asylum agency said Tuesday. The figure was a third higher than 2020. Nearly one-third were minors. The bloc gave out 185,000 positive asylum decisions, with Eritreans the most likely to receive aid (81-percent success rate). This year's figures will be distorted due to the arrival of millions of Ukrainians.

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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."

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