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The eurozone economies of Greece, Portugal and Ireland are likely to avoid sovereign bond defaults because of a strong domestic investor base of local banks and pension funds that will [...]

As the BoJ and ECB report easing credit standards, the Bank of Ireland has just proposed a new consumer code that includes stricter tests for mortgages and consumer credit. New [...]

Berlin and Paris join forces to push through permanent mechanism to resolve eurozone debt crisesThe leaders of 26 European countries bowed resentfully today to German determination to rewrite the EU’s Lisbon Treaty to shore up the euro.Angela Merkel declared she was happy after a summit meeting of EU leaders in Brussels agreed to establish a [...]

In the early days of the telephone, human operators played a crucial role: you called the operator, asked for the Joneses at a certain address, and she called them for [...]

Day one of the EU heads of government summit may have broken up after 1 a.m., but European officials were already up early Friday to conduct their regular post-mortem of the drawn out fight from the night before.
At a breakfast with reporters, Jose Man…

In this week’s podcast: Political change in Brazil and Argentina, the midterm elections in the United States and Europe’s negotiations over debt and deficit.

Twenty-six European leaders turned up for a dinner in Brussels this evening with one burning question to discuss: Whether or not to change the European Union treaties to accommodate Germany’s demands for a new permanent bailout fund?
But one Euro…

Multiple leaders at Thursday’s summit expressed their deep misgivings about engaging in another round of treaty changes, with several insisting that the German goal of setting up a new, permanent bail-out system could be achieved within the exist…

It is still two hours before the summit, but it seems that one of Germany’s principal initiatives is already sinking badly: a drive to suspend EU voting rights from countries that violate budget rules.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission…

There was a distinctively northern European feel to the Liberal pre-summit gathering in downtown Brussels, with the leaders of Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Ireland welcoming new Dutch premier Mark Rutte to the fold.
Despite the intimate atmosphere – t…

The opening feature of any EU summit is the gathering of heads of government at their partisan caucuses. These days none is more important than the European People’s Party, the right-wing EU coalition that includes Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Si…

The call by Angela Merkel to reopen the European Union’s treaties in a major address to the Bundestag is already generating reaction from heads of government in other member states as they begin descending on Brussels for a two-day summit.
Ms Mer…

Viviane Reding seems to revel in picking a fight with France ahead of summit meetings in Brussels.
In comments to several European newspapers in the run-up to Thursday’s heads-of-government meeting, the EU’s justice commissioner went after …

George Soros thinks that all of Europe is becoming fiscally Germanic, and he’s not happy about it.
The famed financier and philanthropist was in Brussels Tuesday to discuss the plight of Europe’s Roma population, which made headlines last m…

After a day’s worth of summiting in Luxembourg, we seem no closer to learning just how serious a dust-up might occur at this week’s European summit over the issue of reopening the EU’s treaties as part of an effort to prevent another …