European Union lawmakers are seeking to further ratchet down the fees mobile operators charge users when they travel abroad, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters, taking aim at a lucrative source of industry profit. The EU Parliament is pushing for much steeper reductions in so-called roaming fees than those proposed last year by
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A record 1,500 migrants, mainly from Somalia and other parts of Africa, died trying to reach European shores in 2011 and the deadly odyssey continues from Libya, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. It said popular uprisings in Tunisia and Libya prompted more people to flee last year, including sub-Saharan migrants working
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Euro zone unemployment has risen to its highest level since the euro single currency was introduced, data showed on Tuesday, a day after EU leaders promised to focus on creating millions of new jobs to try to kickstart Europe's floundering economy. Seasonally adjusted unemployment among the 17 countries sharing the euro rose to 10.4% in
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Total sales of petroleum products rose by 0.5% in 2011, according to the Statistical Service. There was a significant increase in the sales of kerosene (18.8%), gasoil (14.5%), liquefied petroleum gases (11.3%), gasoil for marine use (10.0%) and aviation kerosene (9.1%). Sales of unleaded motor gasoline 95 RON showed a marginal rise of 0.4%. By
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**But incoming revenue rises ** Fewer people travelled abroad from Cyprus in 2011 according to the Statistical Service. The Passengers Survey shows that 1,208,899 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in 2011 compared with 1,246,378 in 2010, thus recording a decrease of 3.0%. Greece was particularly hard hit: for the whole of 2011
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Registrations of motor vehicles dropped by 17.6% in 2011, having already dropped by 12.5% in 2010 and 25.7% in 2009. The Statistical Service reported that total registrations fell to 36,264 in January – December 2011, from 44,025 vehicles in the same period of 2010. Private saloon car registrations fell by 16% to 26,409 in 2011
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Chancellor Angela Merkel cemented her political ascendancy in Europe on Monday when 25 out of 27 EU states agreed to a German-inspired pact for stricter budget discipline, even as they struggled to rekindle growth from the ashes of austerity. Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to sign a fiscal compact in March that will
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The euro rose on Tuesday, supported by hopes for a Greek debt restructuring deal that would help the country avoid a disorderly default, possibly setting itself up for a test of a key chart level. The dollar extended its recent losses versus the yen and hit a three-month low, remaining under pressure after the U.S.
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Greece's Prime Minister Lucas Papademos held talks on restructing Greek debt with senior officials from the European Central Bank and the European Union after an EU summit on Monday, officials said. ECB President Mario Draghi was originally expected to attend the meeting but was replaced by Joerg Asmussen, Greek and German officials said. Asmussen, an
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Greece's largest bank merger in decades was thrown into doubt as it approached completion, after Alpha Bank said it first needed to assess the impact of the country's planned debt swap scheme before teaming up with EFG Eurobank. Alpha and EFG Eurobank agreed last August to create Greece's biggest bank to better cope with the
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