Recent food fraud cases, including the sale of horse meat as beef, should prompt the EU to review the functioning of the food production chain, step up checks and revise labelling legislation, says a non-legislative resolution approved on Tuesday. The European Parliament voices concern at the growth in food fraud, which it says exploits structural […]
EU Firms Get Boost For Third Country Contract Bids
Plans for a tool to allow EU countries to prevent non-EU firms from bidding for public procurement contracts worth €5 million or more unless their home countries reciprocate by allowing EU firms to do likewise were approved by Parliament on Wednesday. The proposed tool, which could be used only with European Commission approval, should strengthen […]
Strong Jump For German Industrial Production
Regaining momentum. German industrial production returned as an important growth engine in November, increasing by 1.9% MoM from a 1.2% drop in October. On the year, industrial production is now up by 3.5%. The increase was driven by stronger production of capital goods (+5.1% MoM) and durable consumer goods (+3.7% MoM). Interestingly, both the energy […]
ECB Can’t Get No, Satisfaction, From The German, CPI Data…
Inflationary pressure in Germany remains low. Based on the results of several regional states, German headline inflation increased to 1.4% YoY in December, from 1.3% in November. On the month, German prices increased by 0.4% MoM. Based on the harmonised European definition (HICP), headline inflation decreased to 1.2%, from 1.6% in November. On the month, […]
Latvia Joins Euro With Smooth Transition
Latvia has adopted the euro as its official currency and “the changeover is running smoothly and according to plan” according to the European Commission. The previous national currency – the lat – is now being phased out during a transitional two-week dual circulation period when both currencies have legal tender status. By the end of […]
SMEs Leading Big Business In Race To Full Digitalisation
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Europe are moving much faster than their peers in larger organisations in the race to complete key digital transformation initiatives, according to research commissioned by Ricoh Europe. Almost two thirds of SMBs (64 per cent) expect to digitise their remaining physical documents within the next three years, compared to less than […]
Tsipras Meets Rehn. The Bro-mance That Never Was.
In Brussels, Alexis Tsipras, Greek MP and President of Synaspismos, met with Mr Karas and Mr Liêm Hoang Ngoc, to be briefed about the progress of the ongoing inquiry by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on the role of the troika in the countries under Memorandum, Tsipras said: “We came […]
Consistent EU Foreign Policy Demanded On International Day of Human Rights
On International Human Rights’ Day, civil society networks Alop, Cifca, Grupo Sur, Oidhaco and Protection International urged the European Union to make respect for human rights the guiding principle in its trade relations with Latin America. The European Parliament ratified trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Central America in December 2012. This caused deep […]
Bah! Humbug! German New Orders Disappoint
Still zig-zagging. Festive cheer is lacking as new figures show German new orders disappointed in October, dropping by 2.2% MoM, from a 3.1% increase in September. On the year, new orders are still up by 1.9%. The drop was broadly driven by weaker foreign and domestic demand. German new orders have been on a zig-zag […]
Capgemini and Pivotal Announce Next Generation Big Data Partnership
Consulting, outsourcing and technology firm, Capgemini, and big data software company, Pivotal, announced today a new strategic partnership combining Capgemini’s business solutions expertise for big data and analytics with Pivotal’s market leading data platform technologies to deliver solutions for today’s increasingly data rich world. Capgemini and Pivotal are co-innovating around big data and analytics to address […]