BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Audi (VOWG_p.DE ) will grow spending on new models, plants and technology in coming years as the luxury carmaker steps up efforts to catch larger competitor BMW (BMWG.DE ), people familiar with the matter said. The Volkswagen-owned... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers started tense talks on Tuesday to agree the details of one of their most ambitious financial reforms yet with a scheme to close banks, a deeply divisive issue on which Germany has dug in its heels. More than fiv... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticized Russia in his inaugural speech for exploiting Ukraine’s economic plight to prevent it from signing a free-trade deal with the European Union. The Social Democrat (SPD) returne... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Euro zone businesses ended the year on a high as new orders surged, but the chasm between a resurgent Germany and wilting France has widened this month, surveys showed on Monday. Markit’s Flash Euro zone Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index ... More »
MUNICH/STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s highest court has rejected a request by former Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann to keep a trove of documents out of a long-running lawsuit brought by heirs of the collapsed Kirch media empire. The la... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has invited euro zone officials to a meeting in Berlin on Friday in a bid to come closer to a solution on a planned European resolution mechanism to deal with troubled banks, a German newspaper said... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s antitrust watchdog has dropped an investigation into Amazon after the world’s biggest Internet retailer agreed to stop forcing third-party merchants to offer their cheapest price when selling products on its platform. Amazon said i... More »
FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) – Members of Germany’s powerful IG Metall labor union will walk off the job at EADS (EAD.PA ) sites next week to protest against a sweeping restructuring at the European aeronautics group that they fear will lead to thousands of job ... More »
LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta warned on a visit to Germany on Thursday that stereotyping his compatriots as “lazy” or Germans as “selfish” would boost support for populists in next year’s European Parliament vote. If the two ... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich signaled on Thursday that he would sign a law to release his jailed opponent Yulia Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment only if it meant she went there as a convicted person. He said the law c... More »
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) – Christian Wulff on Thursday became Germany’s first post-war president to go on trial, facing corruption charges for accepting more than 700 euros for a hotel stay and meals during an Oktoberfest beer festival when he was a state pr... More »
BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone economy all but stagnated in the third quarter of the year with France’s recovery fizzling out and growth in Germany slowing. The 9.5 trillion euro economy pulled out of its longest recession in the previous quarter but... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s parliament failed on Wednesday to agree on a draft law to allow jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment, clouding prospects for signing landmark agreements with the European Union this month. ... More »
BERLIN/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Germany began publishing an online list on Tuesday of works that were discovered in a huge art stash in a Munich flat last year and believed for the most part to have been stolen or extorted by the Nazis. The move was welcomed by la... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany, under pressure to hasten inquiries into Nazi-looted art works stashed in a recluse’s flat, has sent legal experts to help local authorities in Munich resolve myriad ownership issues, Focus magazine reported on Sunday. The federal go... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A Jewish group accused Germany on Monday of moral complicity in concealment of stolen paintings after it emerged authorities failed for two years to report discovery of a trove of art seized by the Nazis, including works by Picasso and Matis... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone economic recovery that began in Germany has spread to some smaller members but shrinking French manufacturing is hampering a more robust rebound. Business surveys released on Monday showed factory production in the 17-nation bl... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Stada will sell a version of U.S. drugmaker Amgen’s blockbuster cancer treatment filgrastim in Europe, keeping faith with the difficult market for copies of medicines developed using biotechnology. The German generic drugmaker s... More »
WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG’s top labor leader still wants workers at the company’s plant in Tennessee to have German-style representation, an arrangement that would require the involvement of a U.S. trade union such as the United Auto Workers... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will launch a new round of accession talks with Turkey next month following a three-year hiatus after Germany dropped opposition prompted by Ankara’s crackdown on street protests. Turkey began negotiations to join the EU... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s antitrust watchdog accused Amazon of undermining competition when dealing with third-party merchants and said it would impose reform unless the Internet retailer changed its rules, a German newspaper reported. “Luckily, we have ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is to drop the opposition it raised in June to opening a new chapter of talks with European Union membership candidate Turkey after its crackdown on a wave of anti-government protests earlier this year, a source said. The European Co... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Germany is committed to finding a solution to allow the completion of a euro zone banking union by the end of the year, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday. Schaeuble said he hoped finance ministers would make a decision o... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry Ltd co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin are considering a bid to buy the struggling smartphone maker, according to a securities filing on Thursday, raising the prospect of an alternative to a $4.7 billion offer led by i... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s opposition Social Democrats have signaled their readiness to join Angela Merkel’s conservatives in a right-left ‘grand coalition’ by jettisoning a key election demand for higher taxes on the rich. Two weeks after losing the electio... More »
MUNICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Weekend news of 15,000 job cuts at Germany’s Siemens has put the German engineering group’s new chief executive, Joe Kaeser, on a collision course with workers’ representatives only two months after he took the helm. “We oppose a m... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A sharp rise in the euro zone’s current account surplus puts the focus firmly on what Germany’s new government can do to boost consumption and revive investment in Europe’s largest economy. Stronger domestic demand in Germany would suck in m... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Deutsche Bahn DBN.UL has trimmed an order for next-generation high-speed trains built by Siemens (SIEGn.DE ) by almost 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), an internal Deutsche Bahn document seen by Reuters showed. “As part of modifi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – In July 2012, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner traveled to an island off the German coast to meet Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s finance minister. Schaeuble was on vacation, but Geithner visited to discuss the euro zone crisis. Talk ... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Germany is working on a plan that would allow the completion of a euro zone banking union without changing existing EU law, potentially removing a major hurdle to finish the most ambitious EU project since the start of the euro, EU official... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Work will pick up after Germany’s elections to set up a European agency that can order the restructuring or closure of any euro zone bank, the head of group’s finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Saturday. The agency, called the Si... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Rhoen-Klinikum is to sell most of its hospitals to rival Fresenius SE for 3.07 billion euros ($4.1 billion), in an attempt by Rhoen’s founder, Eugen Muench, to outflank opponents to an outright sale of the company. The sale come... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Germany and Finland said on Friday the European Commission should not have the final say on when and how a euro zone bank could be closed, a position that could further delay the bloc’s banking union project. A single resolution authority f... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The artistic director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet is returning to Moscow from Germany following eight months and 22 operations on his eyes and face after an acid attack that nearly blinded him, the theatre’s spokeswoman said. Sergei Filin wil... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Car sales in Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, declined in August after growing slightly a month earlier, casting doubt on the chances of a recovery in vehicle demand in the region. New auto registrations in Germany, home to Volkswagen ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s commissioner to the European Commission said on Saturday he expects a new bailout for Greece to amount to a little more than 10 billion euros, fuelling a debate that could hurt Chancellor Angela Merkel in next month’s election. Alt... More »
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – Business surveys on Thursday suggested the world economy was on the mend, with U.S. and Chinese manufacturing activity at multi-month highs and better-than-expected growth in the euro zone. The data should bolster the case for the F... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Friday he has no intention of resigning over comments he made, but were later retracted, that were interpreted as praise for Germany’s Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The comments b... More »
LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A $9 billion rights issue and a fresh purge of assets are among the measures Britain’s Barclays and Germany’s Deutsche Bank announced on Tuesday to meet tougher rules on risk, raising concern among investors that regulators will pu... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Like the coming of the messiah, depressed southern Europe nations await Angela Merkel’s likely victory in Germany’s September election with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Four years into the euro zone debt crisis, people in debt-laden Sp... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Spain’s Banco Santander (SAN.MC ) has considered investing in Commerzbank (CBKG.DE ), Germany’s second-biggest bank, the daily Die Welt reported, citing financial sources. The paper said on Tuesday that Commerzbank’s retail banking busine... More »
BERLIN/PARIS – (Reuters) – Germany and France were split on Friday over European Union plans for a new agency to wind down troubled banks, with Berlin saying they go too far in centralizing control in Brussels. The body would form part of a banking union desig... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany said on Monday if media reports of large-scale U.S. spying on the European Union were confirmed, it would be unacceptable Cold War-style behavior between partners who require trust to forge a new transatlantic trade area. “If it is c... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Almost 25 years ago, Bruce Springsteen gave communist East Germany its biggest ever rock concert in a performance that fuelled a spirit of rebellion and may have contributed to events that brought down the Berlin Wall, a new book says. In “R... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Ifo institute has trimmed its forecast for economic growth this year to 0.6 percent because Europe’s largest economy had a subdued first quarter and only narrowly avoided a recession, it said on Wednesday. Ifo, which in December ha... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that German art seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War Two should be repatriated to Germany, a claim the Russian leader swiftly rejected. The tense excha... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Vodafone faces a battle for Germany’s largest cable company, Kabel Deutschland, although rival bidder Liberty Global of the United States has bigger regulatory and funding hurdles to overcome. Liberty Global, which owns Unity Media, Germany’... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Pearson and Germany’s Bertelsmann plan to merge their publishers Penguin and Random House, aiming to gain the upper hand in their relationship with Amazon and Apple, the leaders in the ebook revolution. Education and media publishe... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. cable company Liberty Global is preparing a takeover offer for Kabel Deutschland, Manager Magazin reported, sending shares in Germany’s biggest cable company higher. By preparing a bid, Liberty Global wants to steal a march on UK-bas... More »
(Reuters) – Kabel Deutschland – Germany’s biggest cable operator – confirmed on Monday that they have received a preliminary approach from U.S. media group Liberty Global Plc after a British newspaper reported that the company had put forward a 7.5-billion-eur... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s economy will recover from a bout of winter weakness but fall well short of the dynamic growth rates of previous years as euro zone recession and global slowdown stunt exports and investment. There are homegrown problems too. What h... More »
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s economy crept back into growth at the start of the year but not by enough to stop the euro zone from contracting for a sixth straight quarter, and France slid into recession. Falling output across the bloc meant the 17-nat... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Constitutional Court will hold a public hearing on June 11 and 12 on complaints against the euro zone’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program. The complaints, seven... More »
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – The finance ministers of France and Germany sought on Thursday to play down differences over the euro zone’s economic policy mix, saying budgetary rigor and growth were not incompatible. But French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovi... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s finance minister said on Saturday he would ask parliament to agree the outline of a euro zone bailout for Cyprus as soon as possible, to allow the island’s international lenders to hammer out details. Hours after euro zone minister... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner said on Sunday Germany must not allow France to break the European Union’s debt rules and it warned the European Central Bank against buying up sovereign bonds in response to Italy’s inconc... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – The euro zone may need higher inflation in countries like Germany and lower interest rates across the bloc to ensure a sustained economic recovery brings palpable benefits, the head of the IMF said on Friday. Speaking during a visit to baile... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union was right not to arm anti-government fighters in Syria as doing so would risk regional “conflagration”, Germany said on Thursday, highlighting divisions in the region over how to handle the Syrian crisis. “The decision of ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – France, Spain and Italy dragged the euro zone into a deeper downturn in February, according to business surveys that showed the chasm between these countries and prosperous Germany widening yet again. While British services companies had a s... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – When the financial crisis began to spread five years ago, British coffee machine-maker Fracino raced to get ahead of it. From the firm’s base in Birmingham, it carved out new markets in the Middle East, Asia and even Italy for its cappuccino... More »
LONDON (Reuters)- Even as the euro zone periphery starts to spy some glimmers of hope, concern is mounting that Germany is drifting apart from other countries at the core of the single currency bloc, notably France. Economically, the worry is that insistence o... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The euro hit an 11-month high and global equity markets advanced on Friday on signs of a healthier European financial system and a brighter outlook for Germany, while U.S. stocks extended a rally to an eighth day, their best run since late... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The prospect of stronger European manufacturing surveys and decisive monetary easing in Japan this week ought to bolster confidence that the global economy can look forward to better days. It is definitely not yet time to break open the cham... More »
BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – International lenders failed for the second week to reach a deal to release emergency aid for Greece and will try again next Monday, but Germany signaled that significant divisions remain. Euro zone finance ministers, the Internationa... More »
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – The euro zone debt crisis dragged the bloc into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter despite modest growth in Germany and France, data showed on Thursday. The French and German economies both managed 0.2 percent grow... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Germany’s Angela Merkel on Wednesday warned Britain not to turn its back on Europe and urged its Prime Minister David Cameron to work with her to avoid deadlock at European Union budget talks later this month. The leaders met in London to tr... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Spain on Friday said a European bond-buying plan was fully ready for use and that there was absolutely no political resistance from within the euro zone to a Spanish bailout request. The situation in Spain, which is considering seeking an aid... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s interior minister called on Friday for the suspension of visa-free travel for Serbs and Macedonians to the European Union following a surge in asylum applications from citizens of the two Balkan countries. Serbs and Macedonians acc... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Tuesday a request for European aid was not imminent following a report the country could apply for help as soon as this weekend. Rajoy made the comments after meeting in Madrid with the 17 leaders... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – European Commissioner Michel Barnier is seeking a compromise with Germany on banking union plans that would allow local regulators to carry on supervising banks but under common euro zone guidelines. Barnier, who is at odds with Germany over... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Europe has cleared more obstacles on the road to containing its sovereign debt crisis and stabilizing the euro zone after Germany’s constitutional court allowed a permanent bailout fund to go ahead and the Dutch voted for pro-European parties... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Germany should leave the euro zone if it is not prepared to take a more decisive lead in helping the euro zone’s weaker nations escape a spiral of increasing indebtedness and economic decline, veteran financier George Soros said on Saturday.... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the European Central Bank on Friday after its plan to buy the debt of troubled euro zone states stirred outrage in Germany and threats from some in her own party to try and block the scheme. ECB President Ma... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Angela Merkel makes her second trip to China in half a year this week, hoping to strengthen booming trade ties and obtain assurances from Beijing that it will support the fragile euro zone by buying the bonds of its stricken southe... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has taken the gloves off in his fight to save Italy from disaster in the euro zone debt crisis, daring to stand up to European paymaster Germany in a way unthinkable a few months back. His change of attitude ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Italy needs moral support from Germany but not its cash, Prime Minister Mario Monti said in an interview published on Sunday as German conservatives renewed calls for Greece to leave the euro zone. The Italian leader also told weekly magazin... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Politicians in Germany’s ruling centre-right coalition have expressed renewed concerns about an increased role for the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund, which is at the centre of a court case after the German parliament approved it in basi... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain is not considering seeking immediate help from the European Union to ease its spiraling borrowing costs, two Spanish sources said on Thursday, although the euro zone is eyeing possible action for later this year. With the troika of int... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service on Monday changed its outlook for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to negative from stable as fallout from Europe’s debt crisis cast a shadow over the euro zone’s top-rated countries. Moody’s cited an incre... More »
