European Union nations sketched out plans Thursday for new sanctions against Belarus, targeting economic sectors close to its authoritarian leader, as they sought to strike back at him for the diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist, Reuters reported. Meeting in Lisbon, EU foreign ministers vowed to continue ramping up pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — whose disdain for democratic norms and human rights has made his country a pariah in the West.
Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
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Norwegian Air emerged from six months of bankruptcy protection on Wednesday with a smaller fleet and its debt almost wiped out but also facing stronger competition and lingering uncertainty wrought by the pandemic, Reuters reported. The airline said on Friday that it had raised 6 billion Norwegian crowns ($721 million) in fresh capital, as planned, more than enough to meet the minimum requirement set by bankruptcy courts in Dublin and Oslo.
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Sweden’s banks are gearing up for a fresh fight with their government to try to block a proposal that singles out the financial industry for an extra tax, Bloomberg News reported. The Social Democrat-Green coalition government has long made clear it intends to impose a levy on banks, which it argues represent a bigger risk to economic stability than most other industries.
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The Irish Pensions Authority has confirmed that it is investigating potential “pension scheme trustee issues” in relation to the collapse of Hanover-based German Property Group (GPG), which resulted in 1,800 Irish investors losing as much as €107 million, the Irish Times reported. GPG, formerly known as Dolphin Trust, collapsed last year after taking €1.5 billion from investors in the Republic, the UK, Asia and elsewhere since it was set up by businessman Charles Smethurst in 2008.
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Germany’s economy contracted more than expected in the first quarter amid coronavirus lockdown measures, according to statistics released Tuesday, but a leading indicator showed that businesses’ optimism is rising as the pace of vaccinations increases, the Associated Press reported. The Federal Statistical Office said that the first quarter gross domestic product in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, dropped by 1.8% over the fourth quarter of 2020, according to figures adjusted for price, seasonal and calendar factors. The office’s preliminary estimate had been a drop of 1.7%.
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Germany's two biggest listed landlords Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen have agreed to join forces in an 18 billion euro ($22 billion) deal they hope will defuse tensions over soaring rents ahead of general elections in September, Reuters reported. The country's biggest merger this year will create a European real estate giant with 550,000 apartments. It comes as Deutsche Wohnen has become the focus of popular anger in Berlin over tenant rights and affordable housing.
The government leaders of Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic held intensive talks Tuesday in an attempt to solve a years-long dispute that resurfaced recently over a Polish coal mine, the Associated Press reported. The Czech government says the brown coal Turow mine, located in southwestern Poland, near the Czech and German borders, is draining groundwater from communities and causing other environmental harm to Czech citizens.
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Banca Ifis Rescues Italian Casualty of Greensill Collapse
Italy’s Banca Ifis has bought the healthy assets of Aigis Banca for 1 euro ($1.22) after Aigis was forced into liquidation by the insolvency of Germany’s Greensill Bank, Reuters reported. German financial services regulator BaFin in March shut down Greensill Bank AG, which was part of Greensill Capital, the collapsed London-based supply-chain finance group owned by Australian financier Lex Greensill.
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GFG Alliance is putting seven of its U.K. plants up for sale as it seeks to reach an agreement with Credit Suisse Group AG to stave off insolvencies of some of its units, Bloomberg News reported. Owner Sanjeev Gupta made “significant progress” in weekend talks with the Swiss lender’s asset-management arm to resolve GFG’s exposure with Credit Suisse, the metals group said in an emailed statement Monday. GFG has been seeking to raise new financing to replace some of the $5 billion of loans provided by Greensill Capital since the London-based financial firm collapsed in March.
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When Mario Draghi ran the European Central Bank, he pushed, unsuccessfully, to get the region’s feeble banks to merge and clean themselves up. Now as Italy’s prime minister, he is trying again, hoping to spur a consolidation wave among the country’s beleaguered lenders, the Wall Street Journal reported. Italy’s banking sector, stuffed with soured loans and weighed down by high costs, has long loomed as the weakest link among countries that share the euro currency. Last week Mr.
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