Tuesday, March 19

Europe

Car Dealer Van Mossel Wants to Grow in Europe With a German Takeover
Business, Europe, Germany, News

Car Dealer Van Mossel Wants to Grow in Europe With a German Takeover

Car dealer Van Mossel Automotive Group will be more certainly committed to Germany. With the takeover of dealer group Hugo Pfohe from the Hamburg region, the company from Waalwijk is taking its first major step outside the Benelux. The takeover "fits perfectly into our European growth strategy", says Van Mossel CEO Eric Berkhof. The acquisition still needs to be approved by the German competition authority. Van Mossel expects that to happen halfway through next month. “Hugo Pfohe is located in a strategic region for us in Germany,” says Berkhof. “Our existing lease companies, located in Düsseldorf, are a perfect addition to this.” Hugo Pfohe has 700 employees and a turnover of 300 million euros. The family business trades in seven car brands. The 75-year-old Van Mossel claims...
ECB Boss Lagarde: We are Not Done Raising Interest Rates Yet
Business, Europe, News

ECB Boss Lagarde: We are Not Done Raising Interest Rates Yet

The European Central Bank (ECB) has not yet finished raising interest rates. Although policymakers opted for a more minor interest rate step than last time, interest rates are not yet restricting the economy enough, said ECB president Christine Lagarde. In addition, the ECB announced that it would reinvest less released bonds that the bank has bought up in recent years. From July, this will be reduced by 25 billion euros per month. Currently, reinvestments are still decreasing by 15 billion euros every month. Both the interest rate and the reduction in loan purchases have effects that policymakers are already seeing. Households and businesses are already borrowing less because this has become more expensive. But at the same time, there are still many things that could push in...
Paris Stock Exchange Hits New Record
Business, Europe, France, News

Paris Stock Exchange Hits New Record

The Paris stock exchange hit a new all-time high on Tuesday. At the beginning of March, the star index CAC 40 was already just above 7,400 points, and after the extended Easter weekend, the index did even more. Just before 4 p.m., the Paris stock exchange reached 7,403.67 points. After the financial turmoil that has blown over from the American banks in recent weeks, investors seem willing to retake risks. After the peak of March 6, the French star index took another sharp plunge due to that banking crisis - on March 20, the CAC 40 was listed at less than 6,800 points. Since the beginning of this year, the CAC 40 has grown 14 percent in value. The banks included in the star index have not yet been able to recover the losses they incurred in the wake of the bankruptcy of the U...
First Four Slovak Fighter Jets on Their Way to Ukraine
Europe, News, Slovakia, Ukraine

First Four Slovak Fighter Jets on Their Way to Ukraine

Slovakia has sent the first four of the thirteen promised MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense promises to deliver the rest in the coming weeks. After Poland, Slovakia is the second country that has decided to supply fighter jets to Ukraine. The decision was made last Friday. These are MiG-29s, a type that the Ukrainian army has had in their range since Soviet times. In principle, therefore, no additional training is required to deploy the aircraft. Russia reacted indifferently to the news last week. According to a Kremlin spokesman, the donated MiG-29s will "make no difference" in the war.
Volkswagen Recalls 270,000 Cars Worldwide Due to Defective Airbags
Business, Europe, Germany, News, World

Volkswagen Recalls 270,000 Cars Worldwide Due to Defective Airbags

Volkswagen recalls another 270,000 cars worldwide due to safety risks related to airbags. The German car brand announced this on Monday. According to a VW spokesperson, the current recall concerns cars that were sold "in warm countries, for example, in South America". It affects specific versions of the models Golf, Passat, Fox, the Pickup Saveiro and the Brazilian sedan Voyage built between 2013 and 2017 The affected cars have airbags from the Japanese manufacturer Takata. According to the German traffic authority KBA, there are faults in the gas generator of the front airbags, which can lead to "uncontrolled deployment and the detachment of metal fragments that could injure occupants". There have been several accidents involving airbags in the past, some of them serious. ...
European Commission Bans TikTok for All Its Employees for Fear of Espionage
Europe, News, Technology

European Commission Bans TikTok for All Its Employees for Fear of Espionage

The European Commission has asked all its employees to remove the Chinese social media platform TikTok from their phones. A spokesperson for the Commission confirms this to our editors. The measure comes to "increase the cyber security of the commission". This morning, the Commission emailed all EU officials asking them to remove TikTok as soon as possible. The measure applies to all business phones and to personal devices if they contain work-related apps. Anyone who does not remove the app before March 15 will no longer have access to work-related software, such as the mailbox or Skype for Business communication software. "The measure is intended to increase the Commission's cyber security," said a spokesman for the Commission. TikTok regrets the Commission's decision, the ...
London Mayor Asks UK Government to Admit Brexit Doesn’t Work
Business, Europe, News, UK

London Mayor Asks UK Government to Admit Brexit Doesn’t Work

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is set to call on Downing Street in a speech on Thursday to admit Britain's departure from the EU has caused "immense damage" and that " Brexit has failed". This is evident from parts of Khan's speech, which were sent to the French news agency AFP. “After two years of denial, we now have to face the solid truth: Brexit is not working,” the speech reads. Instead, Brexit “weakened our economy, broke our Union and tarnished our reputation,” Sadiq said in the speech at Mansion House, his official residence and the financial heart of the capital and country. But this “is not irreparable”, he believes. “We need more alignment with our European neighbours – a change in this extreme, hard Brexit,” which includes “a pragmatic debate about the benefits of joining t...
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban: European Sanctions are a Step Towards War
Europe, Hungary, News

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban: European Sanctions are a Step Towards War

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday lashed out at the "dangerous" European strategy towards Russia and the war in Ukraine. The emphatic support for Kyiv is sliding the European Union "step by step into this war," he warned. "We supply destructive weapons, train Ukrainian soldiers on our territory; we impose energy sanctions. We are becoming an integral part" of the conflict, Orban told national radio on Friday. "We are not being shot down yet, but we are about to become belligerent. Europe is playing a dangerous game." Orban has denounced sanctions against Russia, which he believes are responsible for Hungary's economic hardship. The Hungarian economy contracted in the third quarter (compared to the second quarter), and inflation is over 20 percent and as high as 45 ...
Former Booking.com Executives Questioned Over Tax Evasion
Business, Europe, News

Former Booking.com Executives Questioned Over Tax Evasion

Two former financial executives of the originally Dutch holiday rental site Booking.com will soon be interrogated for possible tax evasion in Italy. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service will collaborate with Italy to investigate Olivier Bisserier and Marcela Martin. Italy had already started that investigation in 2018. The Guardia di Finanza, the Italian counterpart of the FIOD, states that Booking.com would have evaded 153 million euros in tax when renting holiday homes between 2013 and 2019. Bisserier was Finance Director at Booking from 2013 to 2019, and Martin from 2019 to 2020. The Italians sent a first European research assignment in August 2018, but the Netherlands refused it. However, an adapted version with more information from a year later eventually led to a meeti...
ECB Executive: Interest Rates Must Continue to Rise Until Core Inflation Declines
Business, Europe, News

ECB Executive: Interest Rates Must Continue to Rise Until Core Inflation Declines

The European Central Bank (ECB) must continue raising interest rates until so-called core inflation, i.e. the price hikes excluding sharply fluctuating energy and food prices, start to subside. That said, ECB board member François Villeroy de Galhau indicated that the rate hikes could possibly be continued at a somewhat slower pace. "Until underlying inflation in the euro area has peaked, we must not stop raising interest rates," the governor of the French central bank said in an interview with the Irish Times. Focusing on the underlying components of inflation could mean that the ECB will continue to raise interest rates well into the following year, even if the overall price level declines due to declining energy prices. The European statistical office Eurostat previously a...