Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.12-090922/https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/04/12/polish-presidential-candidates-meet-for-chaotic-hastily-organised-tv-debates/

Some of the main candidates in Poland’s presidential elections took part on Friday evening in one or both of two televised debates that were organised at the last minute in the same town, resulting in a chaotic five hours of viewing.

The bizarre situation meant that, right up until the debates began, it was not clear who would participate in them and what format they would take. (…)

Trzaskowski wanted just Poland’s three main stations: the private Polsat and TVN plus public broadcaster TVP. However, Nawrocki additionally wanted two conservative channels, Republika and wPolsce24, to be involved.

Meanwhile, other presidential candidates (there are so far 13 official candidates in total) complained that it was unfair for just Trzaskowski and Nawrocki to be given televised debates.

**Some also claimed that TVP was

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-202433/https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/greece-repay-first-bailout-loans-by-2031-10-years-early-2025-04-11/

ATHENS, April 11 (Reuters) - Greece will pay off loans granted under the first of three debt-crisis bailouts by 2031, two government officials told Reuters, as the country seeks to lose its label as the most indebted country in the European Union.

The payments, which will come in 5-billion-euro ($5.7 billion) annual increments, will allow Greece to pay off the debt 10 years before the loans expire, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Greek economy is gradually rebounding from a 2009-2018 crisis that saw it nearly drop out of the euro zone and that triggered years of social unrest as ordinary citizens fought against austerity-induced cuts in wages and pensions.

"Our aim is to fully repay, ten years earlier than scheduled, the rest of the loans from the first bailout which expire by 2041," said one of the offici

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VILNIUS, April 11 (Reuters) - The Estonian navy detained an oil tanker in the Baltic Sea on Friday and boarded the vessel to inspect its legal status and safety, the country's prime minister said.

The vessel, named Kiwala, was on its way to Russia at the time of the seizure, MarineTraffic data showed.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-105637/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-sex-workers-get-business-code-step-out-shadows-2025-04-11/

ROME, April 11 (Reuters) - Italy has made its first direct reference to prostitution in the business classification it uses for data collection and tax purposes, the national statistics institute said, including escort services, events and the management of premises.

Prostitution in Italy lies in a limbo where individuals are allowed to offer sex services, but that activity lacks specific rules. On the other hand, organising sex workers such as in a brothel is strictly prohibited.

Sex workers are now expected to use the business classification adopted by Italian authorities to get a VAT number and try to regularise their status.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-075007/https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagens-scania-buys-bankrupt-northvolts-heavy-industry-battery-packs-unit-2025-04-11/

STOCKHOLM, April 11 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's (VOWG.DE), opens new tab truckmaker Scania said on Friday it had agreed to buy bankrupt Northvolt's division that makes battery packs for heavy industry, reviving a transaction first presented in February, for an undisclosed price.

Sweden's Northvolt filed for bankruptcy last month in one of the country's largest corporate failures, bringing to an end Europe's best hope of developing

The text, which will only come into force once it has been officially adopted by the member states and the European Parliament, bans PFAS, unless they are inaccessible to children, and targets endocrine disruptors.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-042303/https://www.ft.com/content/692c60b6-b243-440c-b7d1-96ff6c7d3300

The turmoil caused by Donald Trump’s trade policies has ensnared the entire automotive industry except for one smaller player: France’s Renault.

Having emerged from a five-year turnaround under boss Luca de Meo and with hardly any US sales, Renault is insulated — at least for now — from the 25 per cent tariff Trump has imposed on all vehicles imported to the US.

“I had so many miseries as a Renault CEO in the last four years but at least, in this case, I don’t have to be the first one to be worried,” De Meo said in an interview held before the US president’s tariffs were announced.

However, analysts and company insiders say a broader market slowdown caused by the tariff chaos could hurt de Meo’s plans to further expand Renault’s share in electric vehicles as well as hybrids. 

“In the storm, we’re doing pretty well but we’ll see what the boat looks like afterwards

The EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissionvice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials.

“We are very committed to our rules when it comes to the digital world,” Virkkunen said in an interview with European newspapers, including the Guardian. “We want to make sure that our digital environment in the European Union … that it is fair and it’s safe and it’s also democratic.”

She gently pushed back at suggestions that EU digital regulations could be considered trade barriers, saying the same rules applied to all companies, whether European, American or Chinese. “We are not s

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-032050/https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/one-corner-of-europe-feels-sharp-chill-in-trans-atlantic-ties-cb1766d9

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany—Driving toward the German village of Ramstein-Miesenbach feels like entering a twilight zone. It is no longer Germany, but it isn’t quite America either.

The density of pickup trucks and baseball caps increases. Bilingual signs are everywhere and live country music is played every Thursday at Big Emma’s brewery.

But a chill has gripped the tiny village just across the fence surrounding Ramstein Air Base. “We still play soccer with the Americans], we cook together, we’ll celebrate Easter,” said Mayor Ralf Hechler. “We just don’t talk politics all that much.”

Archive: tbc

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine will receive fresh military support worth 450 million pounds ($580 million), Britain said on Friday, as European allies attempt to strengthen the country's position ahead of any peace deal with Russia.

Britain will provide 350 million pounds of the amount from its 4.5-billion-pound military support package for Ukraine this year, with Norway contributing further funding, Britain's ministry of defence said.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-212943/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/10/british-troops-could-be-deployed-in-ukraine-for-five-years/

Britain is considering deploying troops to Ukraine for five years under plans being discussed by allies, The Telegraph can disclose.

Military chiefs want the deployment to help train and reconstitute the Ukrainian army to prevent Vladimir Putin from mounting another invasion.

A scheme for a phased withdrawal was raised in the discussions being led by Britain and France over a “coalition of the willing” to uphold any post-conflict

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-201115/https://www.ft.com/content/fba18bd9-46f9-4736-89f3-976afe3abf7a

The EU is prepared to deploy its most powerful trade measures and may impose levies on US digital companies if negotiations with Donald Trump fail to end his tariff war against Europe.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times that the EU would seek a “completely balanced” agreement with Washington during Trump’s 90-day pause in applying additional tariffs.

But the Commission president warned she was ready to dramatically expand the transatlantic trade war to services if those talks failed, potentially including a tax on digital advertising revenues that would hit tech groups such as Meta, Google and Facebook.

“We are developing retaliatory measures,” von der Leyen said, explaining these could include the first use of the bloc’s anti-coercion instrument with the power to hit services exports. “There’s a wide range of countermeasure

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-035932/https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/04/10/a-russian-nostradamus-to-rival-the-simpsons

LDPR has been without its charismatic, foul-mouthed founder for three years. Kremlin strategists are doing everything they can to hide Zhirinovsky’s absence from voters.

(…) The right-wing, misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia has been without its founder for more than three years now. Vladimir Zhirinovsky died in April 2022, and polling data published by the Kremlin-linked sociological institutes All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) show that his death actually had a positive effect on the party’s popularity: LDPR’s candidates are now (slightly) outperforming candid

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-174245/https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-china-start-talks-lifting-eu-tariffs-chinese-electric-vehicles-handelsblatt-2025-04-10/

BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - The European Union and China have begun negotiations on the abolition of EU tariffs on imports of Chinese electric cars, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday.

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic met China commerce minister Wang Wentao during a visit to Beijing at the end of March and both sides agreed to resolve a dispute over EU tariffs through negotiations, Handelsblatt reported.

The European Union imposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) late last year, saying they were needed to counter cheap loans, land and raw materials and other subsidies and the goal was a level playing field, n

The special tribunal that Western nations intend to establish to prosecute the crime of aggression against Ukraine will not try Vladimir Putin in absentia as long as he remains president of the Russian Federation.

The same provision will apply to the Russian prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, according to two European officials with knowledge of the process who spoke with Euronews.

The prosecution of these high-level officials will be allowed only if the defendants are physically present in the room - unlikely given Russia does not recognise the invasion of Ukraine as criminal and is firmly opposed to cooperating with the West.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-162944/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/germany-s-merz-unveils-his-coalition-deal-on-illegal-immigration-taxes-and-bureaucracy_6740072_4.html

(…) Bitterly negotiated by parties with opposing positions, the coalition agreement presented Wednesday ultimately contains few surprises. It consists of a combination of measures restricting illegal immigration, some tax cuts and a reduction in "bureaucracy," a term that appears about 50 times in the document.

In reality, the most significant reform of Merz's term has already been voted on: On March 18, a nearly €1 trillion spending package to finance defense efforts and modernize the country was approved. This already stands as the future coalition's main achievement and the one most likely to transform the German model being challenged from all sides.

On the politically sensitive issue of immigration – strategic for the conservatives – the two parties reached a compromis

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-162722/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-audit-office-says-keeping-pension-system-unchanged-is-impossible-2025-04-10/

PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - France cannot afford not to reform its pension system and it should look at how to get people working for longer and make changes to how pensions are indexed to inflation, the independent audit office said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has tasked the Cour des Comptes with analysing how the pension system weighs on the competitiveness of the euro zone's second-biggest economy.

He commissioned the report to shape a debate underway among employers' federations and unions on how to revise an unpopular 2023 reform that gradually raises the pension age to 64 from 62.

State pensions are an explosive issue in France and audit office head Pierre Moscovici was careful not to make explicit recommendations, although he highlighted that working longer and tweaking the pension link