European Union

ABC News reports: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into quarantine after being informed that a doctor who administered a vaccine to her has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Merkel’s spokesman said the German chancellor was informed about the doctor’s test shortly after holding a news conference Sunday announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus. Her …

Agence France-Presse reports: The EU agreed on Friday to suspend requirements that oblige airlines to use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year until Oct. 24 due to the aviation industry crisis unleashed by coronavirus. “This slot waiver will provide the necessary flexibility and certainty for our aviation industry in …

Reuters reports: Alphabet Inc’s YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the European Union to avert internet gridlock as thousands of Europeans, constrained by the coronavirus outbreak, switch to working from home. YouTube is the second company after Netflix to act after EU industry chief Thierry Breton urged streaming platforms to cut the quality of their …

The Associated Press reports: Strict new controls to slow the spread of the coronavirus froze traffic at global borders Tuesday, idling trucks in columns more than 30 miles long at some European crossings, while masked security officers turned back travelers at others. The moves by officials bent on protecting their citizens raised new questions about how to maintain supplies of …

The Telegraph reports: Polls have opened in the first round of France’s most unpredictable and high-stakes presidential election in decades, with far-Right leader Marine Le Pen and the maverick centrist Emmanuel Macron leading the field.A Le Pen victory could lead to the collapse of the European Union, experts warn, but after the victory of Donald Trump in the US and …

Reuters reports: The European Union will disappear, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen told a rally on Sunday, promising to shield France from globalisation as she sought to fire up her supporters in the final four weeks before voting gets underway. Buoyed by the unexpected election of Donald Trump in the United States and by Britain’s vote to leave the …

The Guardian reports: France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen called on voters across Europe to “wake up” and follow the example of US and British voters. Speaking at an unprecedented meeting in Germany of Europe’s right wing populist parties, she said Brexit would unleash an unstoppable wave of “all the dominos of Europe”. And after Brexit, she added, before …

Yesterday the Russian embassy in Britain tweeted out the above cartoon which depicts Eurozone member nations as pigs cowering behind a barricade. The pigs are doubtlessly a reference to the acronym PIIGS, which was used by economists when EU members Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain began struggling to refinance government debt during the banking crisis that started in 2009. …

Bloomberg reports: Apple Inc. was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker’s tax bill. The world’s richest company benefited from a “selective tax treatment” in Ireland that gave it a “significant advantage over other businesses,” the European Union regulator said Tuesday. It’s the largest …

The Irish Journal reports: The UK’s decision to leave the EU means Sinn Féin will press for a border vote in the North. Both Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain in the EU, but the leave campaign was able to convince Wales and England to leave the union. “We have a situation where the north is going to be …

From the BBC: Scotland’s first minister has said a second independence referendum is “highly likely” after the UK voted to leave the EU. Nicola Sturgeon said it was “democratically unacceptable” that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against its will. She said the Scottish government would begin preparing legislation to enable another independence vote. Scotland …