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4 hours agoGermany: Survey shows little progress on cutting red tape
Most Germans see no change in bureaucracy despite government promises to reduce it.
The splendid art nouveau Les Brigittines is a Belgian culinary institution, where chef Dirk Myny has overseen the kitchen for 35 years. He daringly reinterprets classic Flemish recipes with dishes such as smoked eel mousse and succulent pork belly with a tart cherry ale vinaigrette.
At restaurants in Italy, an average of 10 to 15 percent is appreciated. When it comes to drivers and tour guides, the average is 10 percent, but many leave more.
On December 10, 2019, Dubliner Moira Killeen was found dead in her apartment in the Belair district. The medical examiner at the scene cited the death as 'violent and suspicious' in his report, yet the prosecutor ruled the case a suicide and declined to carry out a post-mortem examination.
Luxembourg City takes first place with 18.15 percent of reviews mentioning 'beautiful.' Travelers often highlight its clean streets and strong mix of old and modern areas. Even though the capital is small, people seem to appreciate how easy it is to walk around.
Gaining citizenship through family or through marriage is possible, but if you don't have any useful relatives or an EU spouse you'll be looking at getting citizenship through residency. From residency requirements to rules on dual nationality, every country in Europe has its own way of tackling naturalisation.
Travelers often overlook tiny European countries, but, as I discovered on a recent trip to Luxembourg-Europe's seventh-smallest nation, with a population of just 699,000-there's much to discover in these hidden gems. Last summer, I visited my aunt, who has lived in Europe for over 20 years, with stints in Paris, Vienna, Zug, Switzerland, and now, Luxembourg. We spent three days touring the historic city nestled between Belgium, Germany, and France. It's built on a rocky plateau overlooking deep gorges, a sweeping canyon, and surrounding countryside.
The European Central Bank said Friday it had fined French bank Credit Agricole €7.55 million ($9 million) for failing to properly identify climate change-related risks that could affect its balance sheet. "Credit Agricole did not sufficiently assess the materiality of its climate-related and environmental risks" by a deadline set after an investigation in 2024, the ECB said in a statement, adding the bank was late by "75 full days".
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland the annual Alpine gathering of the global elite to declare that now is not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism. This, of course, was a reference to the current ambitions of Macron's counterpart in the United States, Donald Trump, who, in addition to recently kidnapping the president of Venezuela and repeatedly threatening to seize the Panama Canal,
"European NATO members are under pressure from the United States to build up their defence spending. Though they pledged last June to raise their defence and security-related outlays to five percent of GDP by 2035, Wadephul said progress in Europe so far had been lacking. "Unfortunately, efforts in the French Republic have also been insufficient to achieve this so far," Wadephul said. "France, too, needs to do what we are doing here with difficult discussions."
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, will next week propose new rules that are expected to include a requirement for companies in strategic sectors to produce in Europe if they want to receive public money. But the definition of "European preference" has triggered debate, with calls especially from France for more "Made in Europe", while other EU states such as Germany call for "Made with Europe".
"Everyone should take their cue from us, instead of criticising us," he said at the Munich Security Conference, after US Vice President JD Vance used his address at the annual gathering last year to attack European policies on immigration and free speech. "I believe that Europe is inherently strong and can be made even stronger yet," he added.
As we enter 2026, is gearing up to release our fourth edition of the Fortune 500 Europe list, celebrating the region's most successful companies through the framework of one of business's best-known accolades. To truly understand these companies, we are embarking on a program of webinar masterclasses, executive interviews and strategy deep-dives, leading up to an exclusive London event for CEOs in September.
She had intended to speak about the flashpoints in international politics, Greenland and Ukraine, and US President Donald Trump, but the journalists present kept returning to the issue of the Mercosur agreement and how her party scuppered its ratification. Mercosur, the EU's major trade deal with the four South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, was meant to be a sign of hope in a world of increasing nationalism a boost to trade based on rules, not punitive tariffs.