BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has agreed with China on stabilizing the flow of rare earth materials and products from China that are critical elements for many high-tech and military products, an official said Tuesday. EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Brussels on Friday to discuss Beijing’s export controls on rare earths issued in April and October, and European regulations on semiconductor sales, said Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm. Like the U.S., Europe runs a huge trade deficit with China — around 300 billion euros ($345 billion) last year. It relies heavily on China for rare earth material and products, which are also used to make magnets used in cars and appliances.
Gill said that the EU welcomed China’s recent 12-month suspension of rare earths export controls, and called for a new and stable system of trade in the critical materials. The EU is working with China on an export licensing system to ensure a more stable flow of rare earth minerals to the bloc, he said.
“This is an appropriate and responsible step in the context of ensuring stable global trade flows in a critically important area,” Gill said.
Šefčovič said that that Brussels and Beijing were continuing to speak about further trade measures.
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“Both sides reaffirmed commitment to continue engagement on improving the implementation of export control policies,” he said in an X post.
China is the EU’s second-largest trading partner in goods, after the United States. Bilateral trade is estimated at 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) per day.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Fallout from a cyberattack that disrupted check-in systems at several European airports extended into a second full day on Sunday, as passengers faced dozens of canceled and delayed flights — and the impact poised to worsen for at least one major airport.
Brussels Airport, seemingly the hardest hit, said it asked airlines to cancel nearly 140 departing flights scheduled for Monday because a U.S.-based software system provider “is not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system.” The airport said 25 outbound flights were canceled on Saturday and 50 on Sunday.
Starting late Friday, airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to electronic systems that snarled up check-in and sent airline staffers trying options like handwriting boarding passes or using backup laptops. Many other European airports were unaffected.
The cyberattack affected software of Collins Aerospace, whose systems help passengers check in, print boarding passes and bag tags, and dispatch their luggage. The U.S.-based company on Saturday cited a “cyber-related disruption” to its software at “select” airports in Europe.
It was not immediately clear who might be behind the cyberattack, but experts said it could turn out to be hackers, criminal organizations or state actors.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation European Union, said that aviation safety and air traffic control were unaffected. There was currently no indication of a widespread or severe attack, while the origin of the incident remained under investigation, it added.
Half of Monday’s flights from Brussels Airport canceled
While departure boards for London’s Heathrow and Berlin’s Brandenburg airports were showing signs of smoother arrivals and departures on Sunday, Brussels Airport was still facing considerable issues.
Brussels Airport said in an email Sunday that it had asked airlines to cancel half of the 276 scheduled departing flights on Monday, “because Collins Aerospace is not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system.” Cancellations and delays will continue as long as manual check-in is necessary, it said.
RTX Corp., the parent company of Collins Aerospace, did not immediately respond to two emails Sunday seeking comment.
On Saturday, the aviation and defense technology company said in a statement that it was working to resolve the issue: “The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.”
Brussels Airport said it nonetheless was able to maintain 85% of scheduled departures over the weekend thanks to the deployment of extra staff by airport partners “and the fact that self bag drop and online check-in are still operational.”
The cyberattack affected only computer systems at check-in desks, not self-service kiosks, airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli said, and teams were turning to alternative backup systems and pulling out laptop computers to help cope with the impact.
The airports advised passengers to check the status of their flights before traveling to the airports, and using alternative check-in methods.
“Work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in,” a Heathrow statement said. “We apologize to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.”
A rolling message Sunday on the Brandenburg Airport’s web page said: “Due to a systems outage at a service provider, there are longer waiting times. Please use online check-in, self-service check-in and the fast bag drop service.”
A feature of the Trump era is that while foreign governments object to the American President’s protectionism, in practice they often jump at the opportunity to join him in imposing tariffs. Witness the new levies the European Union proposed on imported steel last week.
Brussels plans to cut in half the volume of steel allowed to enter the EU tariff-free each year, to 18.3 million tons. For imports above that level, the tariff rate will rise to 50% from 25%. This is a gift to struggling European steel makers that have long begged for protection.
The U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday that a man was arrested in connection to the ransomware attack that has caused delays and disruptions at several European airports since the weekend.
The hack targeted check-in systems provided by Collins Aerospace on Friday, causing delays at Brussels, Berlin, Dublin, and London’s Heathrow airport, which lasted until yesterday.
While the NCA did not name the man, it said he is “in his forties” and that he was arrested in the southern county of West Sussex on Tuesday. The man has been released on conditional bail, the agency said.
“Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages and remains ongoing,” said Paul Foster, deputy director and head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit.
NCA spokesperson Richard Crowe told TechCrunch that the agency had nothing else to add to the press release.
Last week, Brussels Art Week’s inaugural full-city edition, RendezVous, animated the Belgian capital with exhibitions, performances, screenings and talks across more than 65 venues. Founded by curators Laure Decock and Evelyn Simons, the initiative transformed the city into a walkable constellation of art spaces spanning downtown, uptown and midtown neighborhoods. The week pulsed with ambition and wit, balancing international names with local voices and institutional heft with grassroots initiatives. And while many of the art week exhibitions remain open through October, the concentrated energy of the opening days set the tone for the city’s autumn art season, shaking off the summer lull.
Decock and Simons’ manifesto captures the ethos behind the project: “For us and for many, Brussels is a unique place. Conveniently central, discreetly humble—surrounded by big sisters such as London and Paris, but brimming with a creative energy that is ferocious… A city defined by an enriching diversity, a charming chaos, an avant-garde that has been going steady for over 100 years and where new trends inscribe themselves onto a canvas of strong art historical traditions.”
At the heart of the 2025 programming was The Tip Inn, a temporary salon conceived by Zoe Williams as artwork and gathering point. Equal parts dive bar, nightclub and installation, the venue had candlelit tables, satin curtains and an atmosphere pitched between decadence and parody. A monumental print of Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s Prodigal Son (1536) presided over the room, while sausages hung like garlands and a video loop showed a girl casually relieving herself among glasses of champagne. Visitors ordered the artist’s signature whiskey-Montenegro cocktail, pocketed lighters inscribed with “Can I show you my portfolio?” and drifted between conversations, poetry readings, screenings and DJ sets.
The Tip Inn, a salon-style installation by Zoe Williams. Courtesy the artist
Williams, a Marseille-based British artist, has long explored the performative dimension of hospitality. By staging a bar, she foregrounded the dynamics of service, consumption and rebellion, while The Tip Inn itself captured Brussels humor and irreverence, reminding everyone that art weeks need not be confined to white cubes.
RendezVous unfolded across three main zones. Downtown, centered around the city center and Molenbeek, there was a strong mix of historical reflection and contemporary experimentation. At Harlan Levey Projects, Amélie Bouvier’s exhibition “Stars, don’t fail me now!” (on through December 13) examined humanity’s enduring fascination with the cosmos. Working with archival solar images from the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, the Brussels-based artist transformed deteriorating glass plate negatives into meticulously drawn “photodessinographies.” Graphite and ink captured both celestial forms and the fragile material traces of scratches and fingerprints. Hanging textiles such as Astronomical Garden #1 and #2 extended this investigation into fictionalized landscapes, oscillating between scientific observation and poetic imagination.
Nearby, Galerie Christophe Gaillard opened “Le Contenu Pictural,” Hélène Delprat’s first solo show in Belgium (on through October 31). Borrowing its title from René Magritte’s irreverent ‘période vache,’ the exhibition highlighted Delprat’s own commitment to risk-taking and play. Alongside new works, rarely seen gouaches from the late 1990s testified to a two-decade hiatus in her practice, their intensity sharpened by that rupture. The presentation follows her major retrospective at Fondation Maeght and precedes a forthcoming exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2027.
Grège Gallery offered a different model altogether. Founded in 2021 by Marie de Brouwer, the initiative bridges art, design and architecture, and twice annually it hosts site-specific exhibitions in extraordinary locations—from medieval farmhouses to brutalist landmarks—while its Brussels space functions as a showroom and meeting point. For RendezVous, the gallery highlighted this nomadic, cross-disciplinary ethos, underscoring how entrepreneurial visions are reshaping Brussels’ cultural landscape.
Galerie Greta Meert revisited the late career of Sol LeWitt with “Bands, Curves and Brushstrokes” (through October 25). The works on paper from the 1990s and 2000s charted his shift from rigorous geometry to more fluid gestures, balancing spontaneity with systematic logic. Upstairs, the gallery previewed an online viewing room devoted to British artist James White. His forthcoming series “Indoor Nature” features photorealist paintings on aluminum, presented in plexiglass boxes, capturing domestic interiors where plants introduce subtle tension between artifice and vitality.
Kenny Scharf, JUNGLENIGHTZ, 2025. Oil, acrylic & silkscreen ink on linen with powder-coated aluminum frame, 213.4 x 243.8 x 7.6 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Hugard & Vanoverschelde photography
Ixelles, the heart of uptown Brussels, was buzzing. At Almine Rech, Kenny Scharf’s “Jungle jungle jungle” (on through October 25) presented the artist’s unmistakable universe of cartoonish ecologies and consumerist critique. Scharf, a veteran of the New York Downtown Scene that saw Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat rise to fame, continues to expand his cosmic pop language. Works such as JUNGLENIGHTZ (2025) exemplified his lush, frenetic engagement with nature, nightlife and dystopian exuberance.
Johanna Mirabel’s “I Wish,” at Galerie Nathalie Obadia through October 25, highlights the tradition of ex-voto painting. Drawing on both European and Latin American precedents, the French artist of Guyanese descent wove together sacred motifs and secular imagery. Scenes of disaster and recovery conveyed gratitude, anchoring her first Brussels solo exhibition in a rich cross-cultural lineage.
Bernier/Eliades Gallery showcased Martina Quesada with “If This Is a Space” (through October 25). Her geometric wall sculptures and pigment-on-paper works established rhythmic systems of variation and resonance. Pieces like The verge was always there (2025) interacted with shifting sunlight in the gallery, blurring distinctions between material presence and atmospheric suggestion.
At Xavier Hufkens, Charline Von Heyl’s debut exhibition in Brussels affirmed her reputation as one of the most inventive painters working today. The canvases danced between exuberance and rigor, improvisation and discipline. Rather than resolving into answers, they insisted on painting as an open-ended inquiry—a dialogue as mischievous as it is profound.
Moving toward midtown neighborhoods like Sablon, Forest and Saint-Gilles, Gladstone Gallery presented “In the Absence of Paradise,” Nicholas Bierk’s contemplative still lifes and portraits. Drawn from personal photographs, the Canadian artist’s oil paintings addressed grief, transformation and memory with understated intensity.
At Mendes Wood DM, Julien Creuzet unveiled “Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions,” his first Brussels solo show, on through October 25. Anchored by the figure of the Red Devil from Martinican carnival, the immersive installation combined films, wallpapers, sculptures and sound. Creuzet reimagined the masked body as a fluid, untamed entity traversing mythologies and diasporic histories. Rice, tridents and fragmented limbs recurred as potent symbols, layering ancestral spirituality with contemporary politics. His cosmology was unsettling yet emancipatory, opening unexpected pathways of imagination.
Design also had a strong presence. Spazio Nobile staged a joint exhibition by Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk, curated by Maria Cristina Didero. Celebrating two decades of collaboration, “Thinking Hands” highlighted the duo’s whimsical yet precise approach, rooted in Eindhoven’s design culture. Furniture, lighting and installations demonstrated how their practice resists mass production in favor of intuition and shared invention.
Institutional programming added depth. At WIELS, the group exhibition “Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order” explored ecological precarity through myth and dream. Curated by Sofia Dati, Helena Kritis and Dirk Snauwaert, it assembled more than thirty artists. Highlights included Gaëlle Choisne’s Ego, he goes, a talking fridge filled with decaying goods that critiqued consumer waste while invoking Creole cosmologies. Works by Marisa Merz, Cecilia Vicuña and Jumana Manna reinforced the exhibition’s call for alternative ways of inhabiting the planet.
Amélie Bouvier’s “Stars, don’t fail me now!” at Harlan Levey Projects. Courtesy of the artist & Harlan Levey Projects. Photo credit: Shivadas De Schrijver
Outside, Sharon Van Overmeiren’s The Farewell Hotel transformed the WIELS garden into an inflatable castle open to children and adults alike. Referencing pre-Columbian motifs, museological displays and Pokémon, the installation invited visitors to bounce, explore and reconsider what art can be. Its playful verticality epitomized the week’s spirit of porous boundaries between seriousness and delight.
RendezVous demonstrated how Brussels’ art scene thrives on contrasts—between the polished and the raw, the historical and the experimental, the institutional and the independent. It unfolded not just as a showcase of exhibitions but as a lived experience of the city itself, weaving fluidly through neighborhoods and communities. Far from another entry in the crowded calendar of art weeks, RendezVous affirmed Brussels’ singular position in the cultural landscape: cosmopolitan yet intimate, grounded in tradition yet insistently forward-looking. With this momentum, anticipation for next year’s edition is already mounting.
“Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order” at WIELS. Photo: Eline Willaert
CEO Agenda provides unique insights into how leaders think and lead and what keeps them busy in a world of constant change. We look into the lives, minds and agendas of CEOs at the world’s most iconic companies.
Marco Alvera may be the most considerate CEO I’ve ever met. In one way, that’s not surprising: Alvera, who was born in the U.S. to Italian parents, studied philosophy at university. Even today, he still reflects on the morals of business, as exemplified by a TED talk about fairness he gave in Milan a few years back, which has garnered over 3 million views.
1,000,000 tonnes
The amount of e-NG Tree Energy Solutions aims to produce by 2030.
But if you consider Alvera’s current and prior occupations, his philosophical bent is more of a surprise. Alvera worked in the M&A and private equity department of Goldman Sachs early in his career, and then shifted to working for large Italian energy companies, including Enel, Eni, and Snam, where he served as CEO.
3,000,000
The number of views Marco’s TED talk recieved.
Today, Alvera is still at the forefront of the energy sector, as the co-founder and CEO of both Tree Energy Solutions, a Brussels-based company that produces and transports so-called “electric natural gas” (read on for its definition and use), and Zhero, an Amsterdam-based company that owns and operates large scale renewable energy projects.
Marco’s TED talk about fairness:
But the philosopher and idealist in Alvera is never far away. The Milan-based businessman often reverts to talking about equity and fairness, as he did when we connected for this interview. He’s a well-balanced individual, too, checking out from work regularly to read, enjoy good food, and spend time with his family.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Down to business
Fortune: What is the single most important project you are working on with your company?
Marco Alvera: A company I co-founded in 2022, TES, is building large-scale projects to produce e-NG, a complete green fuel that is created by combining green hydrogen and recycled CO2. We then ship this fuel and deliver it to customers all over the world by using existing infrastructure. As I often say #PPWS, Put the Panels Where it’s Sunny, e-NG is the most simple way to ship cheap renewable solar and wind energy produced in the Sun Belt to a factory in Germany or a house in Japan.
We are developing several e-NG projects in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. We are also racing ahead with one of the largest green energy project import terminals which will be built in Wilhelmshaven, Germany to facilitate the import of both conventional liquefied natural gas and green fuels.
Alvera is optimistic about the trend towards cheaper renewable energy.
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Which long-term trend are you most bullish about for society and the economy at large?
I am most optimistic about the trend towards cheaper and cheaper renewable energy. In regions where it’s sunny and windy, the cost of renewable energy is already a quarter of that of fossil fuels, and this gap continues to grow. This shift will significantly reduce energy system costs, stimulate economic growth, and, if projects are executed swiftly, help address the climate crisis.
Every war is won or lost on manufacturing capacity, the climate war is no exception.
If you were an economic policymaker, what would be your top priority?
Every war is won or lost on manufacturing capacity, the climate war is no exception. Although I advocate for free markets, I believe policymakers should now prioritize reducing the costs associated with the energy transition. This can be achieved by supporting the establishment of new factories to scale up the manufacturing of energy transition equipment, similar to the approach taken for vaccine production during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being productive
What time do you get up, and what part of your morning routine sets you up for the day?
When traveling (which is too often), I get up at 5:30; otherwise, it’s 7:00. I get my best insights right when I start shaving or with a walk in Parco Sempione, which is close to where I live in Milan.
Marco gets his best insights right when he starts shaving or with a walk in Parco Sempione, in Milan.
Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images
What time do you work until? Do you continue sending emails during the night and/or weekends?
I don’t work at night, but I do send emails on weekends, especially during special projects or deals. I believe that a healthy work-life balance is crucial for creativity, productivity, and overall well-being. Our best ideas and most inspired work come when we are connected with our inner selves.
What apps or methods do you use to be more productive?
I use voice dictation for memos and emails, rely on newspaper apps for quick news summaries, and use Yoga Nidra (which means sleep in Sanskrit) to relax, recharge and recover from jet lag. It helps me to keep focused and stay balanced.
Alvera takes inspiration from James Nestor’s book, Breath.
Amazon.co.uk
Who is on your “personal board”?
My wife, daughters, brother and parents, a few very old close friends and perhaps too many current or former partners and colleagues.
Marco with his family.
Tree Energy Solutions
Tree Energy Solutions
Getting personal
What book have you read, either recently or in the past, that has inspired you?
There are way too many books that have inspired me! But recently I’ve been really impacted by “Breath” by James Nestor. This book delves into the science and history of breathing, something so fundamental yet often overlooked. Nestor explains how proper breathing can improve health, boost performance, and even lengthen lifespan. As entrepreneurs and managers, we often focus on external achievements and driving change, but sometimes we neglect the basics, like how to breathe correctly. Learning and practicing effective breathing techniques has been a game-changer for me. It’s a powerful management tool that helps in maintaining focus, reducing stress and increasing overall well-being. This book has taught me the importance of embodying what we learn, not just accumulating knowledge.
Marco would ask his idol, Leonardo da Vinci, how he managed to excel in numerous fields while remaining authentic and true to his multifaceted self.
THEPALMER via Getty
If you could ask your idol one question, who would it be, and what would you ask?
I would ask Leonardo da Vinci how he managed to be a painter, sculptor, engineer, architect, biologist and much more, all at once, and excel in so many fields, simultaneously remaining authentic and faithful to his true multiple selves.
As a consumer, what is your favorite company and why?
I love handmade artisanal products. There are few brands that resonate, and Patagonia stands out for its values, commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing.
The CEO admires Patagonia for its values, commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
And to end on a lighter note: What was the last costume you wore?
I wore my Azerbaijani Caspian Sea fisherman hat – it looks like a massive white mass of hair.
CEO Agenda provides unique insights into how leaders think and lead, and what keeps them busy in a world of constant change. We look into the lives, minds and agendas of CEOs at the world’s most iconic companies.Dive into our other CEO Agenda profiles.
My husband Martin and I met in Brussels in 2012, when I literally stepped on his toes at my neighborhood farmer’s market. At the time, I was working as a security manager at NATO headquarters, and he was on a business trip from his home in the Netherlands.
Three days later, we went on our first date. Five weeks later, I moved to Washington, D.C., to take a post at the Pentagon. Almost a year and a half later, we decided we’d get married and he’d join me in D.C.
As a Marine Corps reserve officer, I took advantage of my VA loan benefits, and we bought a small home in 2014. We brought our newborn daughter home there in 2016.
But we always knew we wanted to move back to Europe eventually.
When the pandemic hit, it gave us time to pause and plan our long-awaited return to Europe.
We wanted to be a short drive away from my in-laws in my husband’s hometown of Rotterdam as they aged. We ultimately chose Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the administrative center of the European Union. We calculated that we could live there for less than D.C. or theNetherlands, and it’s only 90 minutes from Rotterdam.
It helped that I already had a solid network of friends in Brussels, too.
Jessica calls Martin her “90-day fiancé.”
Courtesy of Jessica van Dop DeJesus
We sold our D.C. home for $899,000 in 2021 — a 67.7% increase compared to what we’d paid for it. And after a year renting in Brussels, we started looking for a place to buy. Our two main requirements: It had to be walking distance to our daughter’s school and have an outdoor space big enough to eat outside.
Six months and 20 apartments into our search, we finally found “the one” in Saint Gilles, the neighborhood south of the city center where I’d lived before.
I fell in love with the 14-foot ceilings, the Art Nouveau buildings, and the great parks nearby.
One of Jessica’s favorite things to do in Brussels is go to the markets. There are cafés nearby where she likes to order a coffee or, “if I’m feeling a bit festive,” a glass of wine.
Federico Campanale
We offered 547,500 euro, or $586,767, for the apartment in Brussels, leveraging the cash we had from the sale of our D.C. home to put down a 10% down payment of $58,677 and securing a 20-year mortgage with a 3.59% interest rate.
We live in a street-level duplex in a building with only three apartments. It’s slightly smaller than our D.C. home, but it’s been worth it. Our neighborhood is equivalent to Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., where a place like ours could easily cost double or more. We’ve been able to add our own touches.
The front door leads into our dining room — one of my favorite parts of the apartment because of its high ceilings and large space for our long dining table, where we host many dinner parties.
Jessica is a food and travel content creator, and cooks pretty much every day. She loves that she and her family can host dinner parties in the dining room.
Federico Campanale
Next to the dining room is our living room, where I made a “fitness nook” with my stationary bike and weights so I can work out while watching TV.
We added an American-style stove and oven that fits my Thanksgiving turkey, as well as a wine fridge to our galley kitchen. We put in terrazzo floors as an homage to my childhood home in Puerto Rico.
“In Europe usually ovens are very tiny, but not the case with me because I love a big Thanksgiving turkey,” Jessica says.
Federico Campanale
Toward the back of the first floor, a small room doubles as an office and a sitting room. Large sliding doors lead to our two-level terrace, one with a large table we use in the warmer months.
Jessica and her family like to eat outside on the terrace in the warmer months. Above and beyond the patio, she says, “we have a beautiful view of the city hall.”
Federico Campanale
The bedrooms, laundry room, storage, and bathroom are on the bottom floor.
Lack of closets and storage space is common in European apartments. Fortunately, the former owners made a storage system under the stairs, which we use for extra clothes, household items, wines, and photography equipment.
“My daughter’s room still has the home’s original tile, which we love,” Jessica says.
Federico Campanale
We have an average-sized bedroom with a walk-in closet and a small guest bedroom with a full-sized bed.
Our bathroom is big for European standards with a shower and tub, and we plan to renovate it in 2025.
The bedroom is “very basic,” Jessica says.
Federico Campanale
Currently, our monthly housing costs in Brussels include our mortgage ($2,931) and condo fee ($65) as well as utilities such as electricity ($73), gas ($70), water (about $50), and internet and cable ($68).
I miss being within driving distance of my family in Western New York. The main sacrifice of this move is being so far from people I’m close to. But we’re happy to be in Brussels.
Our neighborhood, Saint Gilles, has always been one of my favorite parts of the city, filled with Portuguese, Brazilian, Eastern European, Italian, Latin American, and North African restaurants and shops. We even had a Latino-themed Christmas market with Colombian food stands and live salsa music sponsored by the town hall last year!
Our daughter, now seven, is a half-Dutch, half-Puerto Rican, third-culture kid, so we wanted her to grow up in a diverse community.
Jessica’s seven-year-old daughter already speaks English, Dutch, and Spanish, and will start learning French at school next year, too.
Federico Campanale
Belgium shares borders with four countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France. This close proximity makes it easy to take a quick weekend trip to explore even more places and cultures.
I can’t say leaving the U.S. for Europe meant the end of all our problems. But I feel more content and at ease here. I don’t worry as much about school shootings, for example, or the potential loss of employer-sponsored healthcare. We can afford to live, get childcare for our daughter, eat and cook like the foodie I am, and travel regularly.
And we can embrace a slower pace of life and a culture that prizes friends and vacations at least as much as work.
Jessica van Dop DeJesus is a freelance journalist, a digital media strategist, and the founder of The Dining Traveler, a multimedia digital platform covering food and travel. Jessica was raised in Puerto Rico and began traveling as a young Marine over 25 years ago. She currently serves as the Latinx facilitator for the Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship program for Bunker Labs, providing mentorship to aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
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Brussels — Police in Belgium on Tuesday shot dead a suspected Tunisian extremist accused of killing two Swedish soccer fans in a brazen shooting on a Brussels street before disappearing into the night.
Hours after a manhunt began in the Belgian capital, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told broadcaster VRT, “We have the good news that we found the individual.” She said the weapon believed to have been used in the shooting was recovered.
Police take security measures on Oct. 17, 2023 as they shoot and capture the man they say was the suspect who opened fire randomly in the city center the day before, killing 2 Swedish soccer fans in Brussels, Belgium.
Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images
The federal prosecutor’s office was more cautious, saying in a text message to The Associated Press, “There are strong presumptions but no certainties” that the man was the gunman. He was shot by police in the Schaerbeek neighborhood where the rampage had taken place.
Amateur videos posted on social media of Monday’s attack showed a man wearing an orange fluorescent vest pulling up on a scooter, taking out a large weapon and opening fire on passersby before chasing them into a building to gun them down. . He was also filmed calmly loading his weapon as cars drove slowly by.
Questions remain unanswered over how a man who was on police files, thought to be radicalized and being sought for deportation was able to launch such an attack.
“Last night, three people left for what was supposed to be a wonderful soccer party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at a news conference just before dawn. “Their lives were cut short in full flight, cut down by extreme brutality.”
De Croo said his thoughts were with the victims’ families and that he had sent his condolences to the Swedish prime minister. Security has been beefed up in the capital, particularly around places linked to the Swedish community in the city.
“The attack that was launched yesterday was committed with total cowardice,” De Croo said.
Not far from the scene of the shooting, the Belgium-Sweden soccer match in the Belgian national stadium was suspended at halftime and the 35,000 fans held inside as a precaution while the attacker was at large.
Prosecutor Eric Van Duyse said “security measures were urgently taken to protect the Swedish supporters” in the stadium. More than two hours after the game was suspended, a message flashed on the big stadium screen saying, “Fans, you can leave the stadium calmly.” Stand after stand emptied onto streets filled with police as the search for the attacker continued.
“Frustrated, confused, scared. I think everyone was quite scared,” said Caroline Lochs, a fan from Antwerp.
De Croo said the assailant was a Tunisian man living illegally in Belgium who used a military weapon to kill the two Swedes and shoot a third, who is being treated for “severe injuries.”
Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw described how the suspect, a 45-year-old man who wasn’t identified, had posted a video online claiming to have killed three Swedish people.
The suspect is alleged to have said in the video that, for him, the Quran is “a red line for which he is ready to sacrifice himself.”
Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after a series of public Quran burnings by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden resulted in threats from Islamic militant groups.
Police overnight raided a building in the Schaerbeek neighborhood where the man was thought to be staying but didn’t find him. Sweden’s foreign ministry sent out a text message to subscribers in Belgium asking them “to be vigilant and to carefully listen to instructions from the Belgian authorities.”
According to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, the suspect was denied asylum in 2019. He was known to police and had been suspected of involvement of human trafficking, living illegally in Belgium and of being a risk to state security.
Information provided to the Belgian authorities by an unidentified foreign government suggested that the man had been radicalized and intended to travel abroad to fight in a holy war. But the Belgian authorities weren’t able to establish that, so he was never listed as dangerous.
The man was also suspected of threatening a person in an asylum center and a hearing on that incident had been due to take place on Tuesday, Van Quickenborne said.
Belgian Asylum State Secretary Nicole de Moor said the man disappeared after his asylum application was refused so the authorities were unable to locate him to organize his deportation.
A terror alert for Brussels was raised overnight to 4, the top of Belgian’s scale, indicating an extremely serious threat. It previously stood at 2, which means the threat was average. The alert level for the rest of the country was raised to 3.
De Croo said that Belgium would never submit to such attacks. “Moments like this are a heavy ordeal,” he told reporters, “but we are never going to let ourselves be intimidated by them.”
A gunman suspected of killing two Swedish nationals in a terrorist attack in Brussels has been shot by police, bringing an end to an overnight manhunt, local media reported Tuesday.
The suspect, whose identity is yet to be confirmed, was shot in the chest by police in Schaerbeek, northeast of of the capital, and taken to hospital, public broadcaster RTBF reported.
He is in intensive care, RTBF said, citing Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden.
CNN has reached out to the offices of Belgium’s Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Federal Prosecutor for more information.
The suspected gunman’s deadly attack Monday night came as Belgium hosted Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifier soccer game at the King Baudouin Stadium 3 miles (5 kilometers) from downtown Brussels, forcing the match to be abandoned at half-time.
In a video posted on social media, a man identifying himself as the gunman claimed “to be inspired by the Islamic State,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said, adding “the Swedish nationality of the victims was mentioned as a probable motivation for the act.”
“At this stage, there are no indications of a potential link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation. On the basis of both the facts and the claim, security measures have been taken as a matter of urgency to protect Swedish fans as much as possible,” spokesperson Eric Van Duyse said during a news conference.
The deadly shooting follows a spate of Quran-burning protests in Sweden and Denmark that has caused angry demonstrations in Muslim-majority countries, heightened security fears and left both Scandinavian nations questioning whether they need to review their liberal laws on freedom of speech.
Belgian authorities condemned the attack.
“Horrified by the terrorist attack that claimed two victims in the heart of Brussels,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “All necessary means must be mobilized to combat radicalism. Our thoughts go out to the victims, their families, and our police forces.”
Following the attack, the terror threat level for Brussels was raised to 4, the highest level, while the French Interior Ministry told CNN it has “strengthened” checks at the Franco-Belgian border.
Police were on the streets of Brussels to ensure safety, the city’s mayor Philippe Close posted on X.
“Following the shooting in Brussels, police services are mobilizing to guarantee safety in and around our capital, in collaboration with the Minister of the Interior,” Close said. “I am at the crisis center… to ensure coordination.”
In a post on X, Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo offered “deepest condolences to the relatives of this cowardly attack.”
“I am closely following the situation, together with the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs from [the Belgian Crisis Center]. We are monitoring the situation and ask the people of Brussels to be vigilant,” he said.
The country’s Crisis Center also posted to X asking people not to share images or videos of the incident “out of respect” for the victims.
Belgium raised its terror alert Monday after two people were shot to death in Brussels. In a social media video, an Arabic-speaking man who claimed responsibility for the killings said he was inspired by ISIS.
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BRUSSELS (AP) — Two Swedes were killed in a shooting late Monday in central Brussels, police said, and Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo suggested the attack was linked to “terrorism” and convened an emergency meeting of top Cabinet ministers.
“I have just offered my sincere condolences to @SwedishPM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” De Croo said. He added on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one.”
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was linked to the international uproar over the Israel-Hamas war.
“A horrible shooting in Brussels, and the perpetrator is actively being tracked down,” said Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, adding that she was joining government talks at the National Crisis Center.
Media reports aired amateur videos showing a man shooting several times near a station using a large weapon.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said the two victims were Swedes.
The Swedish national soccer team was scheduled to play Belgium at Heysel Stadium later in the evening, some 3 miles (5 kilometers) away.
Police spokeswoman Ilse Vande Keere said officers arrived soon at the scene, and sealed off the immediate neighborhood. She declined to elaborate on circumstances of the shooting.
The shooting came at a time of increased vigilance linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has heightened tension in several European nations. At the same time, the Belgian capital has been the scene of increased violence linked to increasing international drug trafficking.
Antonio Masiello | Getty Images News | Getty Images
After plunging into the political mainstream and winning over her more moderate counterparts in Brussels, hardline Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is now shaking things up on home soil.
Europe’s main banking index dropped some 2.7% on Aug. 8 after Italy announced it would impose a 40% windfall tax on banks. The surprise move, which clearly caught traders off guard, was toned down within 24 hours.
Airlines have rebuffed other policy measures, with a new government plan to curb prices when flying to certain destinations. The Italian government is meeting airline executives next month and the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, is already assessing whether the measure would comply with EU law.
Meloni was elected in October and, as well as being the country’s first female PM, is also the first from a far-right party since the end of World War II. So far during her mandate, Meloni has largely fallen in line with mainstream political positions at home and abroad, despite concerns from some that she may push her country to the fringes. She has not been at odds with officials at the European Union, for example. She has also made sure Italy has been a key supporter of Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the fact that some of her cabinet members have had close ties to the Kremlin.
Federico Santi, a senior analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC via email that her backtrack on the windfall tax “was a major misstep, in perception and substance.”
“This poorly-thought through measure was an abrupt reminder that Meloni’s government is mainly made up of right-wing populist parties, with a track record of erratic economic policy-making,” Santi said, adding however that he expects Meloni to “stay the course” on the fundamental aspects of government policy.
Erik Jones, a professor at the European University Institute in Italy, told CNBC he didn’t believe this was a more “populist” government than that witnessed over the past year, with Meloni and her finance minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, trying to spend without running up huge deficits.
“On fiscal policy, even in the absence of binding EU rules, which remain suspended, the government has made efforts to continue a gradual fiscal adjustment, in line with EU recommendations – i.e. by keeping the deficit and debt on a, slowly, declining path and avoiding broad-based expansion that could feed inflation,” Eurasia Group’s Santi said.
Italy’s government debt-to-GDP stood at 144.4% in 2022, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. That’s expected to drop to 140.5% this year and then again to 138.8% in 2024. The Italian economy is seen growing at a rate of 1.1% this year and 0.9% in 2024, according to the IMF. This represents a fall from the 3.7% gross domestic product registered in 2022.
Despite the general expectation that the Italian government is unlikely to go down any more controversial avenues, analysts have mentioned two events that international investors should keep a close eye on.
“Investors should worry about the turmoil that is likely to surround this upcoming budget. There will be a lot of room for controversy that will create volatility. But I do not think that the basic policy will change or that the government will collapse,” Jones from the European University Institute said.
Governments across the EU have to submit their budgetary plans for the new year in October so the European Commission can assess whether they comply with EU rules. In the past, this process has raised tensions between Brussels and Rome.
For others, however, the major risk is a delay in receiving certain EU funds.
“This is a key factor underpinning public investment and growth through 2026, with important knock-on effects on the fiscal outlook,” Santi said.
The EU funds in question were agreed to at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic given the tumult and slowdown across the European economy. Italy’s the biggest beneficiary of the 750 billion euro program ($814 billion) given that its economy was the worst hit by the pandemic and resulting lockdowns. However, disbursements only happen after nations put forward certain measures and reforms.
The sheer volume of funds could make a critical impact on Italy’s economy.
“These delays are, for the most part, not the government’s own making, and Meloni remains intent on meeting NextGenEU commitments on paper — but external issues, high input costs, supply chains strain; and serious administrative shortfalls and bottlenecks will increasingly prevent the government from meeting its investment targets,” Santi added.
U.S. President Joe Biden (R) meets with President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L) in the White House. Both want to accomplsish as much as possible before key elections.
Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images
BRUSSELS — There’s still more than a year to go before U.S. voters head to the polls, but at the heart of the European Union, officials are already racing to get as much as possible done before any potential change of leadership in the White House.
“There is unprecedented close cooperation and coordination between the EU and the current U.S. administration. It goes from official levels to the highest levels,” an EU official, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the situation, told CNBC.
“The EU is aware that this [cooperation] is not a given and such approach might change when there is someone like [former President Donald] Trump in the White House again. And the EU tries to use this momentum to advance [a] number of files, topics where there are shared interests,” the official added.
The EU, a group of 27 nations, was openly thrilled with the election of Joe Biden in late 2020 after four challenging years under the presidency of Trump, during which the transatlantic relationship hit a low. The two sides had different views on trade, defense and technology — to name just a few points of tensions.
But there was a drastic improvement in relations the moment that Biden arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His style and policy priorities were a lot more aligned with Brussels, including over how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and climate change. This became ever more clear with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with European leaders welcoming the financial and military support from the largest economy in the world.
“The United States and the European Union have taken a strong and united stand against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war against Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in March alongside Biden in Washington, D.C.
“Putin thought that he would divide us, and yet we are more united than ever. We stand together in our unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes,” she added.
But it’s possible that the current agreement, and working practices, will all come to an end if there’s a new president in the White House.
“It will be a difficult relationship,” Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at Milken Institute, told CNBC over the phone in the scenario of a Republican candidate taking over the presidency.
“There’s a concern for Europeans that the U.S. will withdraw support [for Ukraine],” he said, adding that this is both military and financial aid.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The transatlantic partnership remains essential for the EU.
Speaking to CNN earlier this month, Trump didn’t answer a question on whether he wants Russia or Ukraine to win the war, and did not commit to any backing for Kyiv if he did manage to win the presidency once again. He, however, claimed the conflict would end within 24 hours if he was back in charge.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to launch his bid for the 2024 presidential campaign later this month, has said he believes the U.S. shouldn’t get further involved in the Ukraine war.
“The transatlantic partnership remains essential for the EU,” a European diplomat told CNBC, also speaking under the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation.
However, the same source said the relationship might look slightly different in the future anyway as Europe looks to become less reliant on other parts of the world — including both China and the U.S.
“The EU is developing its own path towards strategic autonomy, which doesn’t mean we are turning our back on our allies. On the contrary, it means we have to be more capable to be able to make our own choices,” the same diplomat said, adding this will continue regardless of who is in office at the White House.
There’s a realization in Europe that whoever is the next American president will naturally have U.S. interests in mind, which often don’t tally with what Europe wants. Proof of that was when the Biden administration, in spite of a close relationship, introduced unprecedented green subsidies which threatened the European economy. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, often shortened to IRA, left Europe blindsided and searching for concessions.
Meanwhile, EU-wide elections are due in June 2024 and officials in Brussels openly say that they have until the end of this year to complete policy actions. Officials believe they will not be able to pass new legislation from January onward with lawmakers focused on their election campaign.
The recent rapid rise of accessible artificial intelligence tools has the potential to upend dozens of industries. Tools like Chat-GPT and Dall-E 2 by OpenAI can be used to create written content and visual outputs that in previous years required skilled workers who had years of training in art or writing.
“For myself as both an economist and an engineer, I’m absolutely shocked at the rate at which some of these generative content mechanisms are improving,” said J. Scott Marcus, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. “There’s also been a long-standing debate, what’s the impact likely to be on the workforce?”
A recent report by Goldman Sachs laid out some stark possibilities when it comes to AI and the economy. The report estimates two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. and Europe, and around 300 million positions worldwide could be exposed to automation from new AI advances. The report also notes that one-fourth of all work being done could be replaced by generative AI.
“The interaction between humans and AI will become more and more prevalent as we move forward,” said Georgios Petropoulos, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Initiative on the Digital Economy. “Then we will see that they can be really good because they can increase our productivity or efficiency, we can be much more productive in the tasks we are doing.”
Watch the video above to find out more about how AI could change the future of work
BRUSSELS — European regulators distanced themselves from the Swiss decision to wipe out $17 billion of Credit Suisse‘s bonds in the wake of the bank’s rescue, saying they would write down shareholders’ investments first.
Dominique Laboureix, chair of the EU’s Single Resolution Board, had a clear message for investors in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
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“In [a banking] resolution here, in the European context, we would follow the hierarchy, and we wanted to tell it very clearly to the investors, to avoid to be misunderstood: we have no choice but to respect this hierarchy,” Laboureix said Wednesday.
It comes after Swiss regulator FINMA announced earlier this month that Credit Suisse’s additional tier-one (AT1) bonds, widely regarded as relatively risky investments, would be written down to zero, while stock investors would receive over $3 billion as part of the bank’s takeover by UBS, angering bondholders.
In a joint statement with the ECB Banking Supervision and the European Banking Authority, the Single Resolution Board said on March 20 that the “common equity instruments are the first ones to absorb losses, and only after their full use would Additional Tier 1 be required to be written down.”
The standard hierarchy or framework sees equity investments classed as secondary to bonds when a bank is rescued.
Switzerland’s second largest bank Credit Suisse is seen here next to a Swiss flag in downtown Geneva.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
“As a resolution authority in charge of the banking union resolution framework, I can tell you that I will respect fully and entirely the legal framework. So in resolution, when adopting a resolution scheme, I will respect this hierarchy starting by absorbing equity stack, and then the AT1 and then the Tier 2 and then the rest,” Laboureix said.
Switzerland is not part of the European Union and so does not fall under the region’s banking regulation.
The Single Resolution Board became operational in 2015 in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and sovereign debt crisis. Its main function is to ensure that there’s the least possible impact on the real economy if a bank fails in the euro zone.
The recent banking turmoil started in the U.S. with the fall of Silvergate Capital, a bank focused on cryptocurrency. Shortly after, regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank and then Signature Bank following significant deposit outflows in an effort to prevent contagion across the sector.
For regulators in the euro zone, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and perhaps subsequent events, could have been avoided if tougher banking rules were in place.
“A bank like this would have been under strict rules,” Laboureix said. “I’m not judging … but what I understand is that these mid-sized banks, so-called mid-sized banks in the U.S., were in reality, big banks compared to ours in the banking union.”
European lawmakers have previously told CNBC that U.S. regulators made mistakes in preventing the failure of SVB and others.
One of the key differences between the U.S. and Europe is that the former has a more relaxed set of capital rules for smaller banks.
Basel III, for instance — a set of reforms that strengthens the supervision and risk management of banks and has been developed since 2008 — applies to most European banks. But American lenders with a balance sheet below $250 billion do not have to follow them.
Despite the recent turbulence, European regulators argue the sector is strong and resilient, particularly because of the level of controls introduced since the Global Financial Crisis.
“If you look at the past events — I mean, Covid, Archegoes, Greensill, the Gilt crisis in the U.K. last September, etc, etc — during the three last years, the resilience of the European banking system was very strong based on very good solvency and very good liquidity and a very good profitability,” Laboureix said.
“I really believe that yes, there is a good resiliency in our banking system. That does not mean that we don’t have to be vigilant.”
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Deutsche Bank is profitable after shares dipped more than 10% during European trading.
Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Images
BRUSSELS — European leaders on Friday were keen to stress that the region’s banking sector was stable and sound following Deutsche Bank‘s sudden slide as markets opened for trade.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters at an EU summit that Deutsche Bank is a profitable business with no reasons for concern.
The German lender “has modernized, organized the way it works. It is a very profitable bank and there is no reason to be concerned,” he said, according to a translation.
Shares of the German lender traded more than 14% lower at one point Friday after a Thursday evening surge for its credit default swaps — a type of contract to insure against a default. This comes just days after the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as well as several measures from authorities stateside to avoid contagion across the financial sector.
French President Emmanuel Macron also told reporters in Brussels that the banking system is solid, while European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the euro area is resilient because it has strong capital and solid liquidity positions.
“The euro area banking sector is strong because we have applied the regulatory reforms agreed internationally after the Global Financial Crisis to all of them,” she said, according to EU sources.
The 27 EU leaders were gathered for their usual end of quarter meeting. Geopolitics dominated the first day of talks, but the banking turmoil ended up being the focus for Friday. This became the case, in particular, as the leaders’ conversations developed in parallel to the sharp sell-off in Deutsche Bank shares.
In the run up to the gathering, European officials had expressed their frustration with the lack of regulatory controls in the United States, where the recent banking turmoil first emerged. They have been nervous about potential contagion to their own banking sector, mainly as it’s not been that long since European banks were in the depths of the global financial crisis.
“The banking sector in Europe is much stronger, because we have been through the financial crisis,” Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNBC Thursday.
In the wake of the 2008 shock, European banks underwent massive restructuring and had to significantly shore up their balance sheets.
But the EU is still somewhat vulnerable to shocks given that it has a monetary union within the euro area, where 20 nations share the euro, but lacks a fiscal union. Fiscal policy is still the responsibility of the individual governments rather than one single institution.
“We need to progress on completing the banking union; further work is also necessary to create a truly European capital markets,” Lagarde also told the 27 EU heads of state on Friday.
The banking union is a set of laws introduced in 2014 to make European banks more robust. The debate has been politically sensitive, but the reality that high interest rates are here to stay has made it even more pressing.
The idea for a true capital markets union is to make lending easier across the region, where often national bureaucracy can differ from country to country.
BRUSSELS — China’s relationship with Russia is causing unease and division in the European Union, with some in the bloc arguing that it’s time to rethink their ties to Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Russia earlier this week, where both leaders shared mutual concerns, warm words and called one another “dear friend.” Speaking alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese leader Xi predicted voters would reelect his Russian counterpart next year and described his leadership as “strong.”
Their conversations are closely followed by officials in the U.S. and the EU, particularly in terms of potential military support that Beijing may give to Moscow, which could materially help the latter in making advancements with its war in Ukraine.
However, more broadly, the stronger ties between Moscow and Beijing are creating problems within the European Union, which has thus far looked to strengthen its own economic links with China.
There’s a school of thought that the EU needs to tightly curb its relationship with Beijing — something that the United States would welcome. But some EU leaders would instead prefer to be careful with their words and actions in case they antagonize Beijing.
Xi’s visit to Russia “is a little bit of an eye opener for us in Europe,” Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš, the prime minister of Latvia, told CNBC on Thursday.
“If maybe many, many people were hoping that China could somehow be or take the role of a [peace] broker, China’s not doing this at all. China is certainly moving right now overtly on the side of Russia. And this is actually a very big challenge and a big difficulty for all of us,” he said.
Last month, China presented a 12-point plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine. The proposal fails to specify whether Russia needs to leave the territory of Ukraine for a deal to be completed. Kyiv has made it clear it will not agree to any peace deal that does not involve regaining full control of its territory, including Crimea which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.
“We have looked very carefully at [the] communication coming out of the Xi Jinping meeting with Vladimir Putin,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told CNBC. “We very much hope that the phone call will take place as soon as possible between Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”
There’s been speculation that the Chinese leader will now, after leaving Moscow, have his first conversation with the Ukrainian president since the invasion began in February 2022.
However, there are doubts in Western nations that China can be an effective mediator between Russia and Ukraine. When asked if he trusted Beijing to do that, Rutte said, “That’s difficult to assess.”
While Ukraine has previously called out Hungary and Germany for getting too close to Russia, it has kept a more amicable tone toward Beijing.
“I don’t want to do China bashing just for China bashing,” Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, told CNBC in Brussels on Thursday. He said China is a competitor to the EU, but also a partner. Indeed, in 2022, China was the third-largest destination for goods from the EU.
“It’s the same for TikTok,” Bettel said. “In my country TikTok is still not forbidden. I don’t forbid TikTok because it’s Chinese, but if I have evidence that there is something, I will ban it — but I am not in favor of doing bashing or banning without having evidences.”
European institutions, Belgium and Denmark — among others — have banned the use of the Chinese-owned app on government-issued work phones with concerns over national security.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, in January, France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said the French view was to engage with China.
“China cannot be out, China must be in. This is the difference of view we have between the U.S. and Europe,” he said. “We don’t want to oppose China, we want to engage with China.”
Overall, the EU is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Its trade links with China are important, particularly when economic growth in the EU is vulnerable to the ongoing war in Ukraine. But at the same time, it is witnessing a closer bond between Beijing and Moscow which could be in direct conflict with the EU’s aim for peace in Ukraine.
Moreover, the EU has become even more reliant on the United States for security matters since the invasion and Washington rhetoric, meanwhile, is increasingly more critical of China.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses parliamentarians in Westminster Hall on Feb. 8, 2023, in London, England.
Wpa Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
BRUSSELS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting European leaders on Thursday as he continues his second major trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader is expected to address the European Parliament Thursday morning and then attend an extraordinary meeting of the 27 EU heads of state later in the day.
The discussions in Brussels come after a surprise visit to the United Kingdom on Wednesday and a last-minute meeting with French and German leaders in Paris that evening. It is the second time that Zelenskyy is known to have left Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24 last year.
The president is using his time abroad to thank allies for their support so far, while also asking for further commitments at a time when Ukrainian authorities are expecting a large-scale offensive by the Russians.
In London on Wednesday, Zelenskyy brought a helmet from a Ukrainian pilot with the message “we have freedom, give us wings to protect it.”
Last month, Zelenskyy asked Ukraine’s allies for fighter jets — a request that has so far not received the greenlight from Western nations. However, the U.K. said Wednesday it will provide training to Ukrainian pilots to fly fighter jets, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said nothing was off the table when it comes to supporting Ukraine.
In Paris, Zelenskyy was also very clear with his requests to the French and German heads of state. “The sooner we get heavy long-range weapons and our pilots get modern planes, Emmanuel, the earlier our pilots can get modern planes, Olaf, the more powerful will be our tank coalition,” Zelensky said.
G7, the EU and Australia implemented on December 5 a cap on Russian oil prices. Market players have doubts the measure will be effective.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
BRUSSELS — A price cap on Russian seaborne oil will work, EU ministers told CNBC, despite attempts from the Kremlin to escape sanctions and a broad market skepticism over the measure.
The EU, alongside the G-7 and Australia, agreed on Friday to limit the purchases of Russian oil to $60 a barrel as part of a concerted effort to curtail Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine.
The price cap came into force on Monday. In essence, the measure stipulates oil produced in Russia can only be sold with the necessary insurance approval at or below $60 a barrel. Insurance companies are mostly based in G-7 nations.
However, Russia has already said it will not sell oil to nations complying with the cap and that it is ready to cut production to maintain its revenues from the commodity.
In addition, reports suggested that it has been putting together a fleet of about 100 vessels to avoid oil sanctions. Having its own so-called “shadow fleet” would allow the Kremlin to sell its oil without needing insurance from the G-7 or other nations.
When asked if the oil cap can work in reducing Russia’s oil revenues, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said, “Yes, it can.”
It is “the right message at the right time,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.
One of the big open questions is the role of India and China in the implementation of this price cap.
Both nations have stepped up their purchases of Russian oil in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, and they are reluctant to agree to the cap. India’s petroleum minister reportedly said Monday that he “does not fear” the cap and he expects the policy to have limited impact.
However, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told CNBC on Monday: “I think it’s worth trying.”
“Then we will assess the consequences of the implementation of this oil cap,” he added.
The level of the cap will be reviewed in early 2023. This revision will be done periodically and the aim is to set it “at least 5% below the average market price for Russian oil,” according to the agreement reached by EU nations last week.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said over the weekend that the limit on oil prices will help the bloc stabilize energy prices. The EU has been forced to abruptly reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons due to the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Market players, however, remain wary about the integrity of the policy.
Analysts at Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said in a note Monday that the scale of the price cap’s impact “remains ambiguous.” They added, “we have been sceptical on the practicalities of its success.”
There is a risk that nations buy Russian oil at the agreed cap but then resell it at a higher price to Europe, for example. This would mean that Russia would still make money from the commodity sales while Europe would be paying more at a time when its economy is already slowing down.
“The introduction of the cap on the price will probably not remove all the volume, some will find its way to the markets,” Angelina Valavina, head of EMEA Natural Resources and Commodities at the Fitch Group, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” Monday.
Oil prices traded higher Tuesday morning in London.
Both international benchmark Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate futures traded 0.4% higher at around $83 a barrel and $77 a barrel respectively.
Crude futures traded higher Monday morning, following a decision by OPEC+ nations to keep output targets unchanged, but moved lower in afternoon trading.
Belgium began proceedings on Monday in its largest ever trial to determine whether 10 men played a part in the Islamist suicide bombings in Brussels in 2016 that killed 32 people and injured over 300.
More than six years after the attacks, presiding judge Laurence Massart will confirm on Monday the identity of all parties to the case, including the defendants and lawyers representing around 1,000 people affected by the attacks claimed by Islamic State.
She will then address the jury, selected from a pool of 1,000 Belgians last week in a process lasting 14 hours.
The Brussels bombings’ trial has clear links to the French trial over the November 2015 Paris attacks. Six of the Brussels accused were sentenced to jail terms of between 10 years and life in France in June, but the Belgian trial will be different in that it will be settled by a jury not judges.
The twin bombings at Brussels Airport and a third bomb on the city’s metro on March 22, 2016 killed 15 men and 17 women – Belgians, Americans, Dutch, Swedish and nationals of Britain China, France, Germany, India, Peru and Poland, many based in Brussels, the home to EU institutions and military alliance NATO.
Nine men are charged with multiple murders and attempted murders in a terrorist context, with potential life sentences, and all 10 with participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
They include Mohamed Abrini, who prosecutors say went to the airport with two suicide bombers, but fled without detonating his suitcase of explosives, and Osama Krayem, a Swedish national accused of planning to be a second bomber on Brussels’ metro.
Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris trial, is also an accused, along with others prosecutors say hosted or helped certain attackers. One of the 10, presumed killed in Syria, will be tried in absentia.
In accordance with Belgium court procedure, the defendants have not declared whether they are innocent or guilty.
Prosecutors are expected to start reading from the 486-page indictment on Tuesday before hearings of some 370 experts and witnesses can begin.
The trial in the former headquarters of NATO is expected to last seven months and is estimated to cost at least 35 million euros ($36.9 million).
