Author: Euronews

The President of the Catalan government Pere Aragonès on Wednesday pleaded on political parties to take “responsibility” and approve the amnesty law in an interview with Euronews. ADVERTISEMENTIt comes a day after the controversial amnesty bill was unexpectedly struck down by a small margin in Spain’s Congress.The law is part of a pact struck between Spain’s socialist party (PSOE) and Catalan separatists that allowed Pedro Sánchez to form a coalition government last November.”I appeal on all parties to take responsibility so that this amnesty law is not put at risk,” Aragonès told Euronews in Brussels, adding that he wants to see…

Europe’s two biggest economies seem to be winning the battle against the inflationary beast, but is it still too early for rate cuts? ADVERTISEMENTFrance and Germany have published their latest consumer price index (CPI) data and the results are promising.CPI is a measure of inflation which looks at how much money consumers are paying for particular goods and services over time.France was the first to share the news, with national statistics agency INSEE reporting a 0.2% drop in prices month-to-month, and a 3.1% annual rise in inflation for January.This is down from a 3.7% year-on-year jump seen in December, meaning…

The European Commission assured on Tuesday that talks on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement continue after a French official claimed President Emmanuel Macron had convinced the bloc’s executive to bury the deal. ADVERTISEMENT”The discussions continue, and the EU continues to pursue its goal of reaching an agreement that respects (…) sensitivities, particularly in the agricultural sector,” the EU executive’s lead spokesperson told reporters.The remarks aimed to dispel claims made by an Élysée official that Macron, a fierce opponent of the deal, had personally convinced Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to order negotiators to halt talks.It came as farmers ordered a siege of Paris…

As we approach the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we’re looking into whether the mega sporting events really do bring an economic boost to the host city and country, or whether it costs more than it’s worth. ADVERTISEMENTMany Parisians aren’t really happy about their city hosting this year’s summer Olympics.Despite President Emmanuel Macron’s desire to turn the event into a “popular celebration”, the minimum €2,700 tickets to attend the opening ceremony and the several hundred euro cost to go and see almost any of the events may for once give the French a good reason to complain.Nevertheless, many have…

The use of facial recognition technology could increase across the European Union despite efforts to regulate it under the bloc-wide Artificial Intelligence Act. ADVERTISEMENTLast December, EU negotiators reached a preliminary agreement on the AI Act, a world-first attempt to regulate the emerging technology that includes new rules on the use of biometric identification systems such as facial recognition. But civil society organisations fear there are loopholes in the planned law. “They have set very broad conditions for the police to use these systems. What we fear is that this will have a legitimising effect,” said Ella Jakubowska of Reclaim Your Face,…

HSBC neglected to adequately protect customer deposits from around 2015 to 2022, leading to the PRA issuing its second largest fine ever. ADVERTISEMENTHSBC was served with a massive £57 million fine on Tuesday by the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), due to the bank failing to do enough to protect customer deposits.The PRA said HSBC did not correctly recognise which deposits fell under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) between 2015 and 2022. This scheme entitles customers to have up to £85,000 of their deposits protected. About 99% of eligible customers were wrongly classified as ineligible for the…

Transparency International has released its latest report about anti-corruption efforts in Western Europe and the EU. ADVERTISEMENTCorruption in Western Europe and the European Union is getting worse, according to experts’ perceptions, and this is the first time it’s got worse in over a decade.Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) looked at 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).According to the report, experts and business people find that the world’s least corrupt country is Denmark, followed closely by Finland and New Zealand in second…

Following a drone attack on a US airbase in Jordan, the Middle Eastern conflict could get worse. US President Joe Biden says his country “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing”. ADVERTISEMENTA drone attack over the weekend on the Tower 22 US base on the Jordan-Syria border has killed three US troops and injured several others. The White House has blamed the attack on “radical Iran-backed militant groups” but has not yet said which group it believes to be responsible.Following the attack, crude oil prices inched up 0.27% to $78.2…

Amazon drops $1.4 billion bid for iRobot amid disagreements with EU regulators threatening to block the deal in 2022. ADVERTISEMENTAmazon has abandoned its intended $1.4 billion (€1.3 billion) acquisition of iRobot, the maker of Roomba, following disagreements with European Union regulators who warned of blocking the deal.The European Commission informed Amazon in November that it believed the company’s purchase could restrict competition in the robot vacuum cleaners market, particularly as other manufacturers sell their vacuums through the online marketplace.”Amazon may have the incentive to foreclose iRobot’s rivals because it may be economically profitable to do so,” a statement from the…

The European Commission will not push forward Article 7, the so-called nuclear option, against Hungary over breaches of fundamental rights until there is a strong majority in favour among member states. ADVERTISEMENT”It’s not possible for the Commission to take a decision in the process,” Didier Reynders, the European Commissioner for Justice, said on Monday afternoon.Hungary has been under the first phase of Article 7 since 2018 over the democratic backsliding overseen by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is accused of weakening judicial independence, perpetuating cronyism, diluting media pluralism, abusing emergency powers, passing anti-LGBT legislation and hindering asylum rights.Although unrelated to the rule…