“UK agrees EU deal on City regulation,” headlines the Financial Times in a front page story branding a financial regulation agreement, which was unofficially agreed last week, a “significant step forward.”

The deal will regulate trades in London’s financial markets, and comes after more than two years of tough negotiations between banks, stock exchanges and governments in the UK, France and Germany. It will be formally approved by EU finance ministers on Friday.

The agreement “will potentially limit Brussels’ influence on the way the City of London regulates trading,” writes the economic daily, as it includes a clause that rules that no regulator’s proposals should discriminate against any member state. The newspaper continues –

This clause is similar to one the UK carved out from the deal on European banking union last December, and comes amid tension over the influence Brussels has over the City. The proposals, tentatively agreed last week, also included a clause that could make it harder for London to be overruled by the European Central Bank and other regional regulators on legislation affecting the City.

“A spectacular political and trade policy gesture”: this is how Le Monde describes the move being prepared by Paris, which may make France the only EU state to refuse to grant a negotiation mandate to the European Commission on the occasion of the meeting of EU trade ministers in Luxembourg on June 14.

The initiative could block talks with Washington on a free-trade agreement, which have been scheduled to take place behind the scenes at the next G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17 and 18.

The daily explains the attitude of President François Hollande’s administration —

In its bid to protect the cultural exception, the government will flatly refuse to proceed with talks if audiovisual media are not excluded — a policy that has to date been rejected by the Commission, as well as Germany and the UK.

At a time when Brussels is battling against Chinese dumping and prepring to ward off the American onslaught in concluding an acceptable free trade agreement, the trade dispute between the European Union and Russia appears to be "a forgotten trade war", writes Libération.

According to the French daily, in fact –

For 10 months now, Russia [which joined the WTO on 22 August 2012], the third-largest trading partner of the EU behind the United States and China, is piling up obstacles to European exports. By now almost all the major products have been affected: in agriculture, automotive, wood and paper. The loss of profits to European businesses is around €7bn per year.

That, reveals Libération, is why the European Commission is preparing to take to the World Trade Organisation "as early as July” the matter of

taxes slapped on imported cars, [...] the primary export of the EU to Russia (€10.5bn per year). Starting June 16, Moscow will impose anti-dumping duties on light commercial vehicles from Volkswagen and Mercedes (29.6 per cent) and from Fiat (23 per cent).

Libération reports that Europeans have long been divided on the subject between

some, like Germany, which despite the taxes remain overall winners, and some like Poland, delighted to take the place vacated by those who can no longer export.

But this time, the newspaper concludes, Vladimir Putin

by going too far and playing too brutal a hand, has succeeded in creating a united front against him.

“This year risks being a rough one for European carmakers,” announces Der Spiegel. The weekly reports on a recent study published by the Centre for Automotive Research at the Universty of Duisburg-Essen in the Ruhr the region, which is home to many of Germany’s car factories. According to the study, this year’s sales in western Europe could be down by as much as 5 per cent compared to 2012.

Only 11.9m cars are expected to be sold in Europe’s 27 member states and neighbouring free trade countries, which will make 2013 “the worst year in three decades for the European car industry,” points out the magazine.

The worst affected countries are in southern Europe, with production in France, Spain and Portugal set to decline from 62 per cent of capacity to 58 per cent between 2012 and 2013. The outlook is even worse for Italy, which is expected to reach just 49 per cent of its planned level of production for 2013. According to Der Spiegel, the long-term picture is also grim, with no improvement in prospect within the next two years.

At a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on May 26 in Berlin, Angela Merkel declared that “Germany will do its utmost to avoid controversy that will result in tit-for-tat increases in customs tariffs,” reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Li was adamant in his rejection of “anti-dumping procedures” announced by the European Commission, which would impose a tax on Chinese solar panels and telecommunications equipment.

The daily explains that Germany aims to act as a mediator at an informal encounter between Chinese and EU officials on May 27 in Brussels.

Beijing has threatened to contest the European Commission's decision to impose taxes on Chinese solar panels and telecommunications equipment before the World Trade Organisation.

Germany, which accounts for more than half of the EU’s exports to China, has voiced its concern over the power struggle and called for an amicable settlement.

“It is high time that Europe gave up its fascination with the size of the Chinese market and demanded, like the United States, a minimum of fair exchange”, argues Le Figaro, which adds —

The interdependence of global economies will add to pressure for an amicable settlement, as desired by Berlin. But for that, it is time for Europe to put its foot down and to set aside any naivety. Given China’s rapid rise to power, soon it will be too late.

Will EU plans to impose import duties have their intended impact? According to NRC Handelsblad, “installing Chinese solar panels is a lucrative business in Europe.” In the Netherlands, the solar energy sector has been marked “by spectacular growth,” in spite of the economic crisis. The newspaper explains that —

… vast numbers of entrepreneurs and companies in the electrical installation business, who were hard hit by the crisis in the construction industry, have eagerly moved into the solar panel installation. As it stands, they are able to get by thanks to Chinese equipment. They really do not need a European tax that will make solar panels more expensive [...] AFASE[the organisation which defends the interests of European solar installers] is worried that the taxes could result in 242,000 job losses across Europe — a figure that is vehemently contested by the supporters of import duties, like German panel manufacturer SolarWorld.

NRC Handelsblad points out that the European Commission will decide on the issue of import duties at the end of May. If it rules in favour of the measure, duties will be imposed from the beginning of June, although they will not definitively established until December. They could also be applied retrospectively to transactions dating back to March 6, 2013.

The Swedish company H&M and the Spanish group Inditex, which owns Zara, “are to sign a legally binding building and fire safety agreement” for factories producing their clothing in Bangladesh, reports De Morgen.

The initiative has come three weeks after the collapse of a building in Dhaka, which resulted in the death of 1,100 people.

The daily notes that marketing experts believe the “move by the garment makers has mainly been motivated by pressure from consumers and public opinion, and fears that their reputations may be compromised.”

The European car market is weak and the outlook for 2014 is poor, points out La Tribune.

The quarterly figures reported by carmakers are cause for concern: the automobiles division of PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) saw sales decline by 10.3 per cent, Daimler announced a 60 per cent drop in profits, while Volkswagen reported a slight reduction in sales volume.

Meanwhile, American carmaker Ford tripled its European deficit, with a €350m loss and a 7 per cent decline in sales.

Iceland and China signed a free-trade agreement on April 15 during an official visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who was accompanied by about 50 Icelandic business executives. The Nordic island thus becomes "the first European country to sign such an agreement with China," writes Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið. The agreement will "give an advantage to Icelandic businesses and to exports in a rapildly-expanding Chinese market," the paper adds.

Iceland's exports to China "amounted to 7.6bn krona [nearly €50m] in 2012 and has doubled in the last two years," reports Morgunblaðið. Fish and seafood products make up 90 per cent of the exports.

At the signing ceremony, representatives from both countries said, among other things, that they want to "increase their exchanges and their practical cooperation in the Arctic," reports news website the EUobserver. The site says that climate change may explain this rapprochement. It adds –

Some experts say that China is hoping to get a foothold into the area and hopes to obtain permanent observer status at the eight member Arctic Council meeting scheduled for next month. […] The melting of polar ice caps opens the road to new trade routes that could reduce navigation time between Hamburg and Shanghai by one third. The Icelandic foreign minister told the Wall Street Journal that the two countries are also in discussions over exploiting the vast oil reserves lying in the waters to the north-east [of Iceland].

In Amsterdam, Dutch daily Trouw wonders if the "love is truly mutual" between Reykjavik and Beijing. While Iceland just needs capital to relaunch its economy, the Chinese are only interested in the gas and oil in the Arctic and see in Iceland nothing more than a "handy harbour" for the day when the maritime routes of the Arctic will be accessible.

Nonetheless, "Iceland must not feel threatened by Beijing," Arctic expert Alyson Bailes told Trouw, because

China's presence could be a positive balance to possible aggressive behaviour by the Russians. At the same time, a small – for Beijing – financial injection could do wonders for the Icelandic economy.

Since last year, Slovakia is the world’s largest car producer relative to the size of its population, manufacturing 171 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, putting it considerably ahead of rivals the Czech Republic and South Korea.

“This means both advantages and disadvantages,” writes the Slovak daily, noting that the automotive sector is a pillar of the local economy,employing more than 74,000 people. However, “in times of crisis […] cars are among the first products which people postpone buying.”

While Slovak vehicle exports head towards the EU, other markets are becoming increasingly important. For instance, the industry is seeking to exploit the recent tension between China and Japan, which has triggered a Chinese boycott of Japanese cars.

On March 18, the European Aeronautics consortium won the largest contract in its history, when the Indonesian low-cost airline, Lion Air, ordered 234 mid-range A320 aircraft for a total of €18.4bn.

The huge contract "will keep 5,000 Airbus workers and many subcontractors busy for the next 10 years, and it will also consolidate the company's leadership of on the booming Asian low-cost market," the business daily delightedly announces.

The European Commission ruled on March 6 that the US software giant will have to pay a fine of €561m, the equivalent of 1 per cent of its annual sales.

Microsoft is being punished for not respecting commitments it made to the EU. Following a European Commission investigation of possible abuse of the firm’s dominant market position, Microsoft pledged in 2009 to allow Windows users a choice between competing web browsers. However, when the operating system was later updated, the choice of alternatives had disappeared.

The company has already announced that it will not file an appeal against the antitrust ruling.

“With the euro crisis in full swing, the European EADS group has surprised us by turning a profit,” announces the business daily.

In particular, the Airbus civil aviation branch accounted for two-thirds of the €56.5bn of the consortium’s sales in 2012. Between now and 2020, the company has orders worth €566.5bn.

The only potential issue in the performance posted by group CEO Tom Enders, notes the newspaper, is that this success has mainly been fuelled by sales of the medium-range A320. However, the long-range A350, which competes with Boeing’s Dreamliner, is the aircraft that will determine the future of the group.

Amazon is under fire on a number of fronts. First, the Federal Labour Agency is investigating working conditions within the on-line retail giant, following revelations that it exploited staff and employed neo-Nazis as security guards.

Secondly, the Federal Anti-trust Office is now inquiring into the low price policy that Amazon imposes, through its Amazon Marketplace platform, on private individuals and small vendors.

The policy may be in breach of pricing and competition regulations.

A European Commission proposal to reduce incentives for large companies with more than 250 staff has not been welcomed by the Czech Republic. Nor is it to the taste of Poland, Slovakia or the Baltic States.

At a meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council on February 19 in Brussels, representatives of these countries will argue to keep these industry subsidies — notably incentives for investment by large companies.

Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italy’s energy giant ENI, is now officially under investigation in the bribe scandal involving his company.

ENI is accused of paying a €200m bribe through Saipem, a firm controlled by ENI, to secure a €11bn contract with Algerian counterpart Sonatrach, and its shares plummeted.

Poland registered the fastest e-commerce growth in Europe, enthuses the conservative daily, with its largest auction site Allegro increasing its 2012 revenue by 17 per cent to more than 10bn zlotys (€2.5bn).

In total, Poles spent 24bn zlotys (€6bn) on the net last year (an increase of more than 30 per cent). According to the daily, the economic slowdown and austerity resulted in Poles turning to the Internet as a source of cheaper products.

From 2008 to 2011, ArcelorMittal Finance, which is registered in Belgium, generated profits of €5.8bn. However, because the steel group’s “internal bank” is “hypercapitalised” (€28bn of capital between 2008 and 2010, and €36.6bn in 2011), it was able to take advantage of “notional interest deduction”, a specifically Belgian tax break that allows companies to avoid tax if they invest using their own resources.

Over four years, the group's “internal bank” deducted €5.6bn: ArcelorMittal was only obliged to pay tax for one year (€81mn in 2008). This amounted to an overall tax rate of 1.4 per cent from 2008-2011.

On January 24, steelmaker ArcelorMittal announced its intention to close six finishing lines and a coke plant in the Liège basin, which will effectively axe 1,300 jobs, and further undermine the region’s labour market. Liège has already been hit by 800 redundancies from the closure of two blast furnaces, announced in October 2011.

Staff at the steelworks have called for a strike to protest against the decision.

Business leaders are pressuring the government to reject the single European patent, arguing that “solutions provided by the single patent scheme favour highly technologically developed countries”. Meanwhile for Poland, which has just started building a knowledge-based economy, the new single patent will be “very costly” and risky for the applicants. The campaign seems to be effective as “the government has begun hesitating” over whether to sign the single patent agreement.

Europe is in the midst of a “zombie company” revolution, where hundreds of thousands of firms, which should have folded due to colossal debts, are clinging on to solvency thanks to “government help, ultra-loose monetary policy and, often, the reluctance of lenders to write down bad loans since the crisis,” bemoans the Financial Times.

The economic daily quotes a business consultant saying: “The fundamental tenet of capitalism, which holds that some bad companies need to fail to make way for new and better ones, is being rewritten.” One in 10 UK firms can afford to repay only interest on loans rather than the capital sum. The newspaper adds –

In some parts of the continent the problem appears even more severe. The lowest rates of insolvency in 2011 were from Greece, Spain and Italy, the three countries whose economies have struggled most. Fewer than 30 in every 10,000 companies fail in these countries – this at a time when nearly one in three groups is loss-making.

Zombie companies are being blamed for Europe’s weak recovery, triggering fears the bloc may echo Japan, where low interest rates, loose government policy and big banks reluctance to foreclose on unprofitable companies has caused decades of weak growth. The newspaper continues –

In the US, where the philosophy of “creative destruction” holds more sway, there has been a swift increase in insolvency rates since the crisis. But this has been far less the case in Europe, where policy makers have been more focused on protecting jobs than on boosting efficiency.

The paper quotes a debt specialist saying –

Europe is like a forest floor that is being clogged with weeds, choking off nutrients and light to saplings with a chance of becoming trees. What Europe needs is a fire to clear out the undergrowth.

Europe’s top telecoms executives are in talks to create a pan-European infrastructure network to unite the continent’s fragmented national markets, reveals the Financial Times on its front page. The idea of pooling telecoms infrastructure emerged last year at a private meeting between European Commissioner for Competition Joaquín Almunia and bosses of Europe’s biggest groups, including Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom, Telecom Italia and Telefónica. The move aims to combat a feeling among the industry that “Europe’s disjointed market has impeded their ability to compete.” The economic daily adds that -

establishing an EU-wide network-sharing agreement would be fraught with financial and technological obstacles, given the myriad differences in infrastructure and national rules. But […] it could also yield consumer benefits, such as single pricing for telecoms and internet services across Europe.

Around four-fifths of EU mobile customers have subscriptions with the four largest groups, but these operate independently through some of the 1,200 fixed telecoms operators and almost 100 mobile networks, that exist in the EU. The newspaper concludes –

Grand schemes face near-insurmountable political hurdles. Much more likely is some degree of network sharing without full regulatory overhaul. This could be more acceptable to domestic regulators already subject to EU rules.

“Slovakia is already producing too much for the world,” writes Pravda on its front page. Exports from the country now stand at 94 per cent of GDP, a ratio that makes Slovakia one of the highest-exporting member states of the EU after Malta, Luxembourg and Hungary, and one of the most open countries in the world in terms of trade, writes the newspaper. The Slovak economy is supported by the automotive sector. In 2012, 850,000 cars will roll off the production lines, or 157 per 1,000 inhabitants. The newspaper adds –

These two records should, in theory, be a cause for celebration. If we look closely, though, we find much food for thought there, for both records show a huge dependency and vulnerability in the economy.

The newspaper warns against the risk of becoming the "Detroit of the East" – a ghost town like those in the United States, if this single industry should one day disappear.

Economists point out that Slovakia's economic growth is purely on paper: it does not reduce unemployment and does not fill up the state coffers. As the automakers benefit from low tax rates, and most of the production is exported, Slovakia does not benefit from taxes on the sales of the cars. The country is too dependent on trade and produces very little for the domestic market. Accordingly, Pravda notes,

there is no quick fix for reducing the exposure of the market. The only way forward is to create favourable conditions for local businesses and move to areas with higher added value.

“ILVA shuts down, 5,000 sent home,” reads the headline in Corriere della Sera. The wrangling over Europe’s biggest steel mill, under investigation since a probe found the plant’s enormous levels of pollution caused thousands of deaths in the nearby city of Taranto, came to a head when prosecutors ordered the closure of some production facilities and issued arrest warrants for seven managers. In retaliation, the owners shut down the plant and sent home 5,000 workers. The move could affect other plants and related industries and trigger the loss of more than 20,000 jobs. Trade unions have seized management offices in protest.

In Taranto, the population is split between the unemployment scare and health concerns, La Stampa reports. “Crushed between the huge costs of a clean up and an extremely dangerous socio-political situation, the city risks a real civil war.”

But concerns are nationwide. “What is the message we are sending to those wondering if investing in Italy is still worthwhile?” asks Il Sole 24 Ore, arguing that “the crusade of a few judges cannot decide the fate of one of the key sites for the country’s industrial policy.” According to the employers’ federation newspaper, the ILVA crisis –

will cheer up European competitors. A bounty for German and French groups. In France the state is so aware of the strategic value of the steel industry that it advocates nationalising two plants that can’t find buyers as they are deemed too uncompetitive and polluting. Employment first: the French say openly what in Taranto is forbidden to even whisper.

However, in Paris, the government is locked in a battle with ArcelorMittal, which wants to close the Florange blast furnaces in Lorraine. It is even threatening to temporarily nationalise the site, home to 630 jobs. "Brilliant idea or mission impossible?" says Liberation. President François Hollande will meet Lakshmi Mittal, the head of the firm, on November 27 to "convince the boss of the group to sell its entire site, that is to say, both its furnaces and crude steet processing facilities, the most modern part of the site, which is still active," added the newspaper.

The pressure is peaking between the government and Mittal. A week before the deadline for restarting work at Florange, the threats are flying. The first threat is that of nationalisation, if the steel group does not save the site in the Moselle region. The second, says it is out of the question to sell the facilties, as they are an integral part of France's industrial infrastructure.

The October 24 announcement that Ford’s plant in Genk will down tools in 2014 has provoked a wave of anger in the Flemish press. More than 10,000 jobs in the plant itself and in its sub-contractors will disappear. In Gazet van Antwerpen, columnist Paul Geudens rails against the lack of humanity shown by the U. S. automaker –

Recalling that just last month the plant was still under contract to build three new models, the columnist encourages unions and the Belgian governments –

In De Standaard, chief editor Bart Sturtewagen admits that the way Ford operates is “disgusting”, but calls on the Belgians to “roll up their sleeves” and stop looking for someone to blame –

Fifteen hundred kilometres away, ABC prints the same photo as the one in Gazet van Antwerpen, but with a rather different caption: “Ford pulls out of Belgium, drawn by the competitiveness of Spain.” The Genk production plant will be relocated to Almusafes in the Valencia region –

The American manufacturer's decision will see 10,000 jobs axed in Belgium, but it will ensure the continuity of 15,000 in Spain, ABC notes –

Faced with this reversal, La Libre Belgique recalls the closures of the Renault and Vilvoorde plants in 1997 and of the Opel (General Motors) plant in Antwerp in 2010 and asks: “Is there a Belgian disease?”

Peter Van Houte, chief economist at ING, notes in an interview with the Belgian newspaper that “to ignore the problem of cost in Belgium would be blindness [...] But to zero in on this cost would be a mistake too.” Issues related to the size of the country, other policy decisions or strategic perspectives” can explain a climate that multinationals find off-putting. The latest report on international competitiveness from the World Bank does not contradict that, and drops Belgium –

Crisis? What crisis? “The 500 biggest companies in Central and Eastern Europe are withstanding the crisis at the moment”, leads Hospodářské Noviny. According to the latest annual report from Deloitte on the economic performance of the top 500 companies found in 18 countries of the region, the profits of these firms rose nearly 30 percent in 2011. The most successful are in the oil, automotive and energy sectors.

The total turnover of the 500 largest companies in the region went from 612 to 707 billion euros, a jump of 16 percent. Their profitability, however, fell by 3.5 percent. “That might announce an impending slowdown, but it can hardly be described as a manifestation of the crisis,” believes a Deloitte analyst quoted by the Prague economic daily. However, warns the journal, the situation could worsen if the euro collapses –

Slovakia and Slovenia, who pay in euros, are currently at the forefront of the countries at risk. Because of the high level of economic integration, all the same, countries that have kept their national currencies would also be in danger.

Deloitte, which has carried out the ranking since 2006, also notes that the crisis could affect still healthy businesses that have already been affected by the economic downturn. The Bulgarian and Romanian companies (such as Petrom or Automobile Dacia) seem the most vulnerable, while the Polish enterprises (such as the petrochemical firms PKN Orlen and Lotos) appear to be standing on more solid ground.

The main economic powers in the Czech Republic – Škoda Auto, the national electrical utility ČEZ and Agrofert (food) – have grown more slowly than the Slovak companies (Slovnaft, U. S. Steel Košice), but they are still growing twice as fast as the region overall.

Swiss banking secrecy laws are not the only item in the European Union's sights. Since 2005, it has asked for changes in Swiss tax laws regarding commodity trading firms (oil, metals, grains) registered in the country. Switzerland became a world leader in the sector, in part thanks to "preferential tax laws that allow multinational trading firms to pay less tax than local firms," notes Swiss daily Le Temps in a lead article.

"Extensively used by raw materials traders, the system is viewed as discriminatory by the EU," explains Le Temps. Today, facing impatience from Brussels, Bern is now proposing to adopt a flat tax for all firms, rather than to be subjected to sanctions. "An option which is turning into a headache," says the leader writer, because

if they tax the traders at the current ordinary level, they will leave and thousands of jobs will be lost [...] as will millions [of Swiss Francs] in tax revenue. If they lower the ordinary level to one deemed acceptable to the commodity traders, they will dig huge holes in their budgets.

Harmonising corporate tax rates must be done at the canton level and must be decided by a ballot. With that in mind, the writer sends a warning:

If Switzerland should learn something from the banking secrecy debacle it is this: it is risky to build one's prosperity on a legislative advantage that can be wiped out in a couple of months by international pressure.

The restructuring plan of PSA (Peugeot-Citroen), France’s foremost car manufacturer, is “no coincidence”, leads the editorial in Le Figaro. Yesterday PSA announced the cutting of 8,000 jobs in France and the closure of its factory in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris.

The conservative daily takes this to be a “formidable trial of initiation” for the socialist government and analyses the causes of this “social catastrophe” –

What's wrong with the car manufacturer? First and foremost, it suffers from being too European and, above all, from being too French. Here is the paradox: held up as an example for having kept nearly half its production in France, unlike Renault, which survives thanks to its low-cost models built in Romania and Morocco, PSA is suffering from the evils that are methodically destroying our industry.

The leftist daily Libération in turn raises the role that Europe has played in this “fiasco” –

Europe bears some of the responsibility for flagging French fortunes. By pushing free trade, it opened the market to the Koreans; the latter have profited from it immensely, while European sales in Korea are a secret (...). Europe has also had a hand in financing new plants built in Eastern Europe, which have left the French factories in a hard place. But awareness is dawning. The European Cars 21 report published in June recommends that open markets become strictly reciprocal to ’maintain a strong industrial base.’

The European car market still hasn’t stopped tallying up the bad numbers: a fall of 9.7 percent for the month of February, writes financial daily Les Echos. At the forefront of this slide are the French car makers. Renault sales recorded a decline of 27.7 percent, Peugeot fell 20.9 percent and Citroën dropped by 12 percent (the PSA Group). It’s a situation that should keep alive the discount war between the major groups, who often sell at 20 percent below list price.

In Italy the situation is not much better, notes La Repubblica: in February 2012 Fiat sales fell by 16.6 percent over February 2011. Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne is meeting with Italian Prime Mario Monti today (March 16) to discuss Fiat's strategy for the coming years.

The Dutch government has decided to impose a ban on khat, following the publication of a study on the use of the drug by Somalian immigrants. According to the study, chewing khat – a plant whose leaves produce an effect similar to amphetamines – ”is harmful to health and a source of social problems.”

The Dutch press has reacted with astonishment to the announcement. Trouw headlines “Hardly a nuisance, but banned all the same,” while rival daily De Volkskrant points out that “of the 27,000 Somalians in the Netherlands, only 10% are addicted to khat.”

De Volkskrant argues that the government’s plan to outlaw a stimulant and to classify it as a hard drug is wide of the mark: “Targeted measures would likely have had more effect than a blanket ban,” which runs the risk of contributing to the development of a black market.

NRC Handelsblad adds that-

... the importing of khat into Europe is only legal in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. As a result, Schiphol [airport] and the neighbouring town of Uithoorn have been able to develop as the centre of a European market.

According to the newspaper, “a mistrust of Somalia as a trading partner” also played a role in the decision by the government, which believes that the “revenue generated by the trade is used to finance terrorist activities” in the Horn of Africa.

"Fiat's split", headlines Il Sole 24 Ore: CEO Sergio Marchionne announced on Monday that Italy's leading car builder will break from Confindustria, the association of Italian entrepreneurs. After months of attrition, the last straw was Confindustria's decision to sideline a recent norm allowing easy firings after the general strike called last September 6th by CGIL, Italy's largest trade union.

The Confindustria owned Il Sole strongly condemns Marchionne's "political" move and advocates the need to settle with CGIL – "a 6-million strong social force, stronger than any party". Fiat's hard line on labour reform could endanger social cohesion, "a key asset for Italy's competitiveness. If we have not yet seen out-of-control indignados like elsewhere there must be a reason".

On the other side, Fiat-controlled La Stampa defends Marchionne and warns that bowing to unions' dictates equates to "choosing international irrelevance, to becoming a museum country. Italy must decide if it still wants to play a leading economic role, and it cannot defend collective rights without sacrificing those of the jobless and the young, as is sadly happening"

Anyway it's an "historic moment", according to La Repubblica: "For a century Fiat and Confidustria have been one piece. The first used to choose the second's president. A solid 'strong power' that dictated politics to governments. [...] As it walks away from Confindustria, Fiat seems set for another exit, much more relevant: an exit from Italy" that Marchionne has often threatened after his takeover of US carmaker Chrysler’s majority share. "The firm has chosen to bet everything on Detroit's table, and to deal with domestic competition only by means of production and labour cuts. Divorce is on its way".

At a time when Europe’s 27 member states have been unable to adopt a common position on the recognition of Palestine, the European parliament has approved a draft agreement of the European Council to open European markets to Palestinian agricultural produce from 2012, reports La Vanguardia. The Barcelona daily explains that until now, Palestinian goods have remained “under the strict control” of Israeli customs authorities. According to the terms of the agreement concluded with the Palestinian Authority, “agricultural produce and fish from Gaza and the West Bank will now have tariff-free, and, for the most part, quota-free access to European markets.” The parties to the agreement “will also be obliged to respect European rules on the sourcing of products: the EU takes the view that the occupied territories are part of Palestine, and not part of Israel.” As a result, “Israeli companies established in the occupied territories will no longer be able to circumvent a system" that currently allows them to include their products in quotas that feature in the trade agreement between the EU and Israel, points out La Vanguardia. The newspaper notes that Palestinian exports to the EU were worth 6.1 million euros in 2009, while EU exports to Palestine were worth 50.5 million euros.

“Hand in hand with Germans,” headlines Gazeta Wyborcza on the 20th anniversary of the Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Co-operation – one of the milestones in Polish-German post-war relations. A long-term Polish-German co-operation plan is to be signed next Tuesday 21 June by PM Donald Tusk and Chancellor Angela Merkel at the joint-session of both governments to celebrate the anniversary. “We want to build a Polish-German partnership for Europe”, says a Polish diplomat quoted by the daily. Besides close co-operation within the EU, the plan foresees construction of fast railway links, gas pipelines, introduction of Polish studies at several German universities and closer scientific co-operation. “It is a document of great significance. Last year we signed a similar programme with France. There are no other examples of closer co-operation in Europe,” a German diplomat assures the Warsaw daily.

"The Chinese say ‘yes’“, headlines Dagens industri following the announcement by Spyker, the Dutch company that owns Saab, of the strategic partnership agreement signed with the Chinese car manufacturer Hawtai. This latter, the economic daily explains, has pledged 150 million euros for the Swedish automaker, whose financial problems have worsened in recent weeks to the point that production had to be halted in early April. The agreement also provides for a joint ventures in manufacturing, exchanges of technology, and distribution. “This partnership assures us medium-term financing and allows us to break into the Chinese market,” Saab chairman Victor Muller told Dagens industri.

Rumours that Renault is considering plans to delocalise production for some of the models made for its low-cost brand Dacia to Morocco have prompted concern in Romania. "Morocco threatens ‘Romanian made’ Dacia," headlines Gândul, which reports that there are two reasons why the carmaker could delocalise: first and foremost, "management’s exasperation with union demands for annual bonuses of 700 lei (175 euros) and an extra of 500 lei (125 euros) per month;" and secondly, the poor state of Romanian road system, which has made it expensive to export cars from the country. Hourly rates of around five euros per hour that Renault could expect to pay in Tangier are considerably less than the 8 euros per hour it currently pays in Romania. However, the Bucharest daily notes that the plant in Mioveni was nonetheless responsible for 2.5 billion euros in exports in 2010, or 7% of Romania’s export revenue. Gândul also points out that Dacia currently employes 150,000 people in Romania, of whom 20,000 work at Mioveni.

"Barcelona announces record tourist figures to end 2010," headlines El Periódico. According to the Barcelona daily, with more than seven million visitors, the Catalan capital has "reported a record year for its tourist business" – a result which has coincided with the inauguration of the high-speed rail link between Figueres (Spain) and Perpignan (France). Delighted by the figures, El Periódico remarks that Barcelona benefits from "a price-quality ratio" unrivalled by other European capitals. The newspaper argues in favour of imposing a tax on tourists visiting the city, and specific measures to counter the theme-park effect that is noticeable in historic cities with large numbers of visitors.

"Full speed ahead for Opel engines," enthuses Budapest's Népszabadság. The General Motors subsidiary has announced that it plans to invest 500 million euros to expand and double capacity at its engine production plant in Szentgotthárd. At a time when its factory in Antwerp (Belgium) is about to be closed down, this latest initiative will enable Opel to create 800 jobs in the near future, and as many as 2,500 in the long term, explains the daily. The Hungarian state has pledged to provide a grant of 27 million euros on condition that plant remains in Hungary for at least 20 years.