Jan Strupczewski

France's draft 2025 budget and medium-term plan to bring down public debt are in line with EU rules and credible, while spending plans of the normally frugal Netherlands are too high, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

European Union and Chinese officials are discussing alternatives to European tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EV), including minimum prices at which such cars could be sold in Europe, but no solution is imminent, European officials said on Monday.

Euro zone economic growth will pick up in 2025 and 2026 and inflation will slow, the European Commission forecast on Friday, but warned a protectionist U.S. trade policy under the Trump administration could be "extremely harmful".

Cross border challenges are widening the gap between the output of Europeans and Americans, who have been moving ahead since the 1990s, a study by the International Monetary Fund showed.

Europe’s investment needs for the green and digital transition, along with defence and research, should use public funds primarily to attract and boost private investment, EU finance ministers said on Monday.

Europe's investment needs in the economy's green and digital transition, defence and research should be financed by private money, with public cash serving only to leverage it, European Union (EU) finance ministers will say on Monday.

The share of European companies planning to increase rather than decrease investment is expected to have halved in 2024 because of concerns about getting skilled staff, high energy costs and general uncertainty, the European Investment Bank said.

The European Union's next long-term budget should focus on fewer programmes and link reforms to investment to help channel EU cash into areas that the EU prioritises, the bloc's Budget Commissioner-designate Piotr Serafin said.

European Union leaders arriving at a summit in Brussels on Thursday said that the bloc needed tougher policies to expel illegal migrants, but acknowledged that agreeing new steps would take time.

The European Commission will propose during its new term measures to tighten the EU's stance on migration, responding to pressure from governments across the bloc for which irregular arrivals have become a major political and security problem.

European Union leaders are set to warn Georgia that its government is jeopardising the country's path towards the EU ahead of a parliamentary election later this month, according to a draft text.

Hungary will hold up a final deal on a $50 billion G7 loan to Ukraine until after the U.S. presidential election by delaying its decision on the timing of the renewal of EU sanctions against Russia, Hungary's finance minister said.

The European Investment Bank proposed on Monday to help close the funding gap and retain the most innovative start-up companies looking to grow in Europe through support for the EU venture capital and private equity markets.

Euro zone finance ministers will announce next month what they want to do to boost the EU's competitive position against China and the United States, including integration of the EU's fragmented capital markets that are key to financing such policy.

Seventeen European countries called on the European Commission on Friday to sharpen the EU's rules on returning irregular migrants to their home countries, a document showed, a week ahead of a summit where migration is likely to be on the agenda.

France's new, slower deficit reduction path announced on Tuesday is not ambitious but is more realistic than the previous one, though much will depend on what reforms Paris will enact to make it credible, euro zone government and EU officials said.

The Group of Seven (G7) countries want to reach a political agreement on the $50 billion loan for Ukraine by the end of October for the cash to be able to available before the end of this year, a senior European Commission official said on Monday.

Concerns are growing among France's European Union partners and on financial markets that the fragility of its minority government could weaken efforts to shore up its public finances and so risk undermining the EU's new fiscal rules.

France will submit its plan to reduce public debt to the European Commission by the end of October, moving forward the submission date that was previously expected after the end of next month, EU officials said on Monday.

Only Malta and Denmark will submit their debt reduction plans to the European Commission by the initial September 20 deadline set by the EU's new fiscal rules, with most other governments planning to do so in October and France even later, EU officials said.