When Enda Kenny’s center-right Fine Gael party came to power in 2011, Ireland was dealing with the collapse of its banking system and struggling to comply with the demands of an international rescue program. Six years later, the economy is booming. Unemployment has fallen from nearly 15 percent to a little over 6 percent, and Ireland pays less to borrow ...

Emmanuel Macron is nothing if not persuasive. He’s built a political movement from scratch and won enough votes from France’s established parties to take the keys to the Elysee Palace. He’ll need those skills and more to carry out an essential reform that has eluded all his predecessors — freeing up France’s labor market. Just last year, France debated the ...

For a long time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a point of not disagreeing publicly with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. This year, however, that tradition is broken, and Merkel appears interested in making sure Draghi’s successor is more acceptable to Germany, perhaps even a German. Recently, for the second time this year, the chancellor blamed ECB for euro ...