TAG: Payments
EU confident of Orbán U-turn on allowing money to Ukraine
BRUSSELS ― Budapest has signaled to the EU that it is ready to lift its opposition to funding Ukrain...
8 months ago
UK energy bills could rise under government plans to fund nuclear
LONDON — The U.K. government is mulling plans which would hike household energy bills to help pay for a new nuclear energy plant.Ministers are considering tweaking the funding deal for Sizewell C, a proposed £20 billion nuclear plant in Suffolk, as they s...
6 months ago
EU floats radical change to how it funds poorer members
BRUSSELS ― Countries may soon have to meet targets in return for their share of a large part of the EU budget under far-reaching plans drawn up by the European Commission.Until now, the bulk of so-called cohesion funding, which was worth €392 billion over...
6 months ago
Risk of ‘lost decade’ as EU countries face economic cliff edge
BRUSSELS — The year 2026 could be a defining moment for the European economy.The double blow of the introduction of reformed EU spending rules and the European Commission turning off the money taps may leave a black hole in the budgets of highly indebted...
6 months ago
The EU has a €30 billion hidden fees problem
Last year, European consumers and businesses lost €30 billion to hidden fees when sending and spending money internationally. And it is only getting worse, in 2019 it was €22 billion. But there is an easy way to crack down on these hidden charges: taking...
6 months ago
Mortgages to become more expensive, ECB warns
Homeowners will finally be confronted by rising mortgage payments as the delayed effects of high interest rates kick in, a top European Central Bank official warned."There are going to be a lot more people exposed to interest rates,” ECB Chief Economist P...
6 months ago
€500B remains unspent from EU’s Covid recovery fund
BRUSSELS — Governments have received less than a third of the EU's original €723 billion pot to help boost post-Covid economic recovery and are now heaping pressure on the European Commission to speed up payments.Countries are demanding the Commission sla...
6 months ago
France talks tough on Ukraine while gobbling up more Russian gas
BRUSSELS — Put your money where your mouth is.Such grumbling is percolating across Europe as new data reveals France quietly ramping up gas payments to Russia just as President Emmanuel Macron loudly positions himself as one of Ukraine’s staunchest defend...
6 months ago
German minister threatens ‘indefinite driving bans’ on weekends
Germany’s transport minister is threatening to ban driving on weekends to meet climate goals if the ruling coalition does not pass reforms to the Climate Protection Act by July.“The fact that the amendment is still not in force leads to considerable legal...
6 months ago
Parliament quietly rejects calls to probe Markus Ferber
The European Parliament will not investigate German conservative MEP Markus Ferber following a POLITICO investigation into his relationship with Dutch businessman Michael Heijmeijer.The decision was made effective last week during Parliament’s Conference...
5 months ago
How dirty Russian money taught Latvia to get serious on sanctions
RIGA — When your most important ally swoops in and closes your third-largest bank while calling it a “money laundering institution,” it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.That’s exactly what Latvia did when confronted by the U.S. Treasury Depa...
4 months ago
Maltese central bank governor, deputy PM face charges in snowballing corruption case
Malta's political elite is facing a reckoning as a long-running investigation into alleged corruption under former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat comes to a head.Central Bank of Malta Governor Edward Scicluna and Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, who both...
4 months ago
Apple’s payments offer ends EU antitrust probe
BRUSSELS – Apple settled a European Union investigation into its Apple Pay service, ending one antitrust case as it battles EU regulators on other fronts. "I do not consider it a peace deal," Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a press confer...
2 months ago
EU countries approve first 4.2B payment to Ukraine
EU governments gave the go-ahead to the first official payment of around €4.2 billion to Ukraine under a €50 billion package of loans and grants to support the country's reconstruction.They deemed Ukraine to have met nine conditions in a set of reforms co...
2 months ago