Eu Financial News

The pharma giant AstraZeneca has requested that the European authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine be pulled

European Union nations have reached a tentative breakthrough deal to provide Ukraine with billions in additional funds for arms and ammunitions coming from the profits raised from frozen Russian central bank assets held in the bloc

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has announced a new unified tourist visa called "GCC Grand Tours," allowing travelers to visit all six Gulf countries and stay for over 30 days. This initiative, unveiled by the United Arab Emirates Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, at the Arabian Travel Mar ket (ATM), aims to boost tourism and make travel across the GCC region more convenient. The Gulf Cooperation Council, also called the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The GCC Grand Tours visa is designed to attract a higher number of tourists by simplifying the process of visiting multiple countries in the region, similar to the European Union's Schengen visa. This new unified visa is expected to significantly contribute to the growth of the tourism sector in the Gulf and increase the number of hotel guests, ultimately establishing the region as a leading destination for regional and international tourists.

Some journalists at Italy’s state-run RAI are on strike to protest budget streamlining and what they say is an increasingly repressive atmosphere in Italy for media

How do you smooth over trade tensions with the all-powerful leader of economic powerhouse China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will spend most of his five-day tour in Europe this week in two small countries at the continent’s eastern half

Chinese President Xi Jinping is kicking off a three-country trip to Europe with the continent divided over how to deal with Beijing’s growing power and the U.S.-China rivalry

EU countries have approved a plan worth 6 billion euros ($6.45 billion) to support Western Balkan states aimed at accelerating reforms and economic growth in the region, as they seek future membership in the bloc

For some, it's a bubble, for others, it's a huge investment opportunity. Bitcoin went a lot further than many would have imagined in January 2009, but it has yet to show its full potential. 

Brexit is bearing fruit. Goldman Sachs is lifting the bonus cap for its circa 570 regulated London bankers and come the end of this year, bonuses this year might be 15 times salaries instead of two times salaries. Or not. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that the EU would not shrink back from taking tough measures to protect its economy and security, amid tense trade relations with China. «China that plays fair is good for all of us,» she said following trilateral talks in Paris with Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron. «Europe will not waver from making tough decisions needed to protect its economy and its security,» she said. «We will defend our companies, we will defend our economies.»

global concern surrounding environmental issues and clean energy pose certain threats to Indian companies planning to invest abroad, consultancy major EY said in a report. While deeper insights are needed in areas like Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), transfer pricing regime, permanent establishment rules, it said that higher investment limits for strategic PSUs investing overseas and investment by family offices are expected to spur overseas investments. India’s outward foreign investment increased to $22.88 billion in FY23 from $1 billion in FY02. On CBAM, it said: “Effective October 2023, it will be an additional cost for importers of specific emission-intensive product categories into the EU and means new compliance and reporting obligations. Companies therefore need to proactively address CBAM-related challenges for exporting ‘covered products’ to their overseas subsidiaries by understanding the requirements, assessing the potential impact on their operations and by developing a compliance plan”.

Emmanuel Macron was on Monday set to warn Chinese leader Xi Jinping against backing Russia in the conflict over Ukraine but also seek to enlist his help in finding an end to the war. Xi is making a state visit to France marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and China. The trip is his first to Europe since 2019 and will also see him visit Serbia and Hungary later in the week.

FSSAI) on Sunday said that India has one of the most stringent standards of maximum residue limits (MRLs) in the world, and that these are fixed at different levels for different food commodities based on risk assessments. MRL is the maximum amount of pesticide residue expected to remain on food products when a pesticide is used according to label directions and is not a health concern for humans, the Indian food regulator said in a press statement.

Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinping's first trip to Europe in five years, which starts in France on Monday

An ongoing lawsuit in the UK over Covid vaccination has caused a global furore, including in India.UK’s The Telegraph has reported that AstraZeneca admitted in court documents that its Covid vaccinecan cause blood clots in rare instances. The pharma major is facing a class action lawsuit over claimsthat its vaccine, developed with University of Oxford, caused death and injuries. In India, where themajority of people were administered Covishield, as the AstraZeneca vaccine was known here, thenews has caused concern. Dr Shahid Jameel, virologist and research fellow at Green Templeton College,University of Oxford, tells Indulekha Aravind that there is no cause for worry as benefits far outweigh risks. But playing politics with this, he says, is both wrong and dangerous. Edited excerpts:

crypto asset market progresses, India finds itself at a pivotal juncture. There’s an opportunity to chart a course that delicately balances innovation in this nascent but super exciting sector, together with risk management, while drawing invaluable insights from the regulatory experiences of other nations. At the recent G20 Summit, India emerged as a leading advocate for standardizing regulatory frameworks for crypto assets on a global scale, championing international collaboration to address the inherently cross-border nature of crypto assets and the imperative to mitigate the macro-financial implications associated with them. Countries worldwide are making significant strides. Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA), the EU-wide regulation, will come into effect this year. MiCA, once put into action, will have a broad scope of application within the crypto asset ecosystem. Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading global financial center in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region, enacted the world’s first Digital Assets Law. The UK government, which has a stated goal of being a global leader in Web3, has confirmed plans to regulate crypto assets through formal legislation in 2024 (It has said it intends to bring many crypto asset activities under the same regulations that govern banks and other financial services firms).

Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinping's first trip to Europe in five years, as the Asian giant rebuilds its foreign relations after a prolonged absence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Xi will start the tour in Paris on Monday, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the U.S. On a visit to Beijing last year, Macron courted controversy by saying France would not necessarily always align with the U.S. in foreign policy, an apparent reference to American support for the self-governing republic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

Kishida unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI on Thursday, adding to global efforts on governance for the rapidly advancing technology. Kishida made the announcement in a speech at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Iran and Russia are working on CBDC and “digital financial asset” (DFA)-powered trade solutions, an Iranian official has confirmed.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI