Spain dismisses threat that national team’s assets could be seized at World Cup
BRUSSELS — Spanish officials are dismissing concerns that international investors could attempt to seize the Royal Spanish Football Federation’s assets while it plays in World Cup matches in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Former von der Leyen aide’s new role reflects EU competition policy shift
BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen wants to modernize competition policy so that European businesses can stand their ground against global rivals, and with the appointment of Anthony Whelan she has...
View ArticleEU hires former von der Leyen aide as top competition official
BRUSSELS — Irishman Anthony Whelan was named on Monday as director-general of the EU’s competition department, installing the former digital adviser to European Commission President Ursula von der...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teresa Ribera is ‘not interested in competition,’ complains jilted Brussels...
BRUSSELS — Teresa Ribera had been in office for barely two weeks as she made her way into the luxury Steigenberger Icon Wiltcher’s Hotel, just off Avenue Louise, Brussels’ high-end shopping street. A...
View ArticleVon der Leyen beefs up her competition squad
BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen is beefing up competition capacity in her Cabinet, as antitrust gets dragged deeper into trade tensions with the United States and the EU continues to strive for a...
View Article‘Don’t scratch the Rolls-Royce’: Olivier Guersent bids farewell to the...
BRUSSELS — At the Madou Tower, home to the EU’s jealously guarded antitrust files, Olivier Guersent’s office is all packed up. On his desk lies a board game called “Anti-Monopoly” — his gift to...
View ArticleTop EU official downplays expectations over Apple, Meta digital fines
The chief of the European Commission’s competition directorate downplayed expectations over the size of the fines that the EU executive is set to hand down to Apple and Meta for infringing the bloc’s...
View ArticleGetting flirty! Are the UK and EU falling into bed with each other again?
LONDON — She’s the British official who’s good at knocking bankers’ heads together. He’s the twinkly-eyed Irishman who’s an old hand at navigating the twists and turns of EU policymaking. Since Brexit...
View ArticleMake the single market ‘sexy,’ Italy’s ex-PM urges EU leaders
BRUSSELS — Enrico Letta, former prime minister of Italy, is facing a tall order: Make everyone fall in love with the single market. It’s a task former Commission President Jacques Delors famously said...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The total eclipse of Margrethe Vestager
Photo illustration by Lynne Brouwer for POLITICO BRUSSELS — Margrethe Vestager is leaving the stage. Her smile fades, translators put down their headsets, the camera feed stops. The woman who was once...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thierry Breton: Brussels’ bulldozer digs in against US
Thierry Breton is winning the war of ideas in Brussels. The ex-CEO is a political whirlwind with a gigantic portfolio as internal market chief, the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron and lots...
View ArticleEU ramps up Big Tech clampdown without 3 top antitrust investigators
The European Commission is starting the next round of its intensifying face-off with Big Tech with a handicap. Three top competition officials, who helped lead high-profile probes into Google,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The French people Europe needs to know
French diplomats, civil servants and policymakers will play a key role in delivering set priorities for the country’s presidency of the Council of the EU, which started on January 1. Here are some of...
View ArticleEurope failed to tame Google. Can the US do any better?
The Justice Department’s antitrust suit against Google offers the United States an opportunity to succeed where Europe stumbled. European Union regulators investigated and fined the Silicon Valley...
View ArticleCommission downplays City’s cliff-edge Brexit worries
The European Commission’s top financial services officials today shrugged off U.K. fears that Brexit could disrupt the continuity of cross-border insurance and derivative contracts and that the bloc’s...
View ArticleEU finance official: UK will have to survive as third country
The U.K. will not be part of the single market after it officially exits the EU and will have to access clients in the bloc like any other “third country,” a senior European Commission financial...
View ArticleDawn of the age of Selmayr
The most important decision announced in the reshuffle of senior managers in the European Commission is not that Alexander Italianer will be the next secretary-general. Rather, it is the choice of who...
View ArticleOlivier Guersent – Practical negotiator
It is common, when French Eurocrats of a certain age get together, for them to discuss their experiences of compatriots who were leading figures in the European Commission in the last decades of the...
View ArticleGuersent re-assigned to internal market role
The European Commission has appointed Olivier Guersent as deputy director-general in the department for internal market and services, to replace Nadia Calviño. That represents a change in direction for...
View ArticleGuersent re-assigned to internal market role
The European Commission has appointed Olivier Guersent as deputy director-general in the department for internal market and services, to replace Nadia Calviño. That represents a change in direction for...
View Article
