In mid-July, the European Commission announced another penalty on Google. Its size caused everyone to shudder: the company will have to pay $ 5 billion. This severe decision was taken by Margrethe Vestager, whose five-year tenure as the main defender of competition in the position of Commissioner of the Antimonopoly Commission of the European Union was marked by a ruthless attitude towards the...

The united Europe reacted to a new deterioration in relations between Turkey and the United States with a poorly concealed optimism. Brussels clearly wants to not miss the opportunity to improve relations with Ankara, which were badly spoiled in recent years, especially after the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016. In recent days, when the US-Turkish relations were aggravated by serious problems with...

The first major crack in five years appeared in the Chinese "The Belt and Road Initiative". The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, announced yesterday during a visit to Beijing that the Chinese projects in his country will be frozen. His predecessor, Najib Razak, signed agreements related to these projects with China. According to the country’s government, Chinese loans have placed...

Greece officially left the assistance program. The country was the last of the four euro area states, which received financial support from its neighbors in the monetary union. Almost € 290 billion was invested in the fight against the Greek crisis in just eight years. Now Greece will have to pay its own debts. At the same time, the EU will continue to monitor the progress of the Greek reforms,...

The tragedy in Genoa prompted Europeans to take a closer look at bridges on the continent. A quick overview brought alarming results: the state of the transport infrastructure in the Old World and, first of all, the bridges, leaves much to be desired. According to the updated data, 38 people were killed as a result of collapse of the bridge in the Italian Genoa. Moreover, this mournful figure can...

In the coming days, Iran and Syria are going to sign an agreement on strategic partnership. Its last details were discussed this week in Damascus by an Iranian government delegation. Tehran claims a leading role in restoration of the Syrian economy, or, rather, it seeks to protect its investments in this country during the years of military conflict. According to experts, Tehran fears that as the...

European Commissioner for Justice Věra Jourová told the Financial Times that the European Commission will carefully study the "corrupt citizenship" schemes in eight European countries as part of bolstering of the campaign against money laundering and corruption. "A suspicious requestor will be denied citizenship at the slightest doubt," Věra Jourová said. "We do not have the authority to prohibit...

Iran's oil exports continued to decline in July on the eve of the full restoration of US sanctions against the country. European consumers are reducing purchases, and supplies to France and South Korea have completely stopped, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report. "Iran's oil exports fell by 90,000 bpd to 2.19 million bpd, as European consumers are cutting volume of...

On Saturday, Angela Merkel, the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, started a two-day visit to Spain. On the eve, Madrid and Berlin signed an agreement on the return of refugees. This step has become yet another measure to resolve the most acute migration crisis in the history of the European Union. The agreement with Spain is also intended to help Mrs. Merkel herself, who has recently...