Paris, France / AFP Sales of cars in the European Union surged by 16 percent in May compared to a year earlier, continuing a 33-month rise and nearing pre-recession levels, manufacturers said Thursday. A total of 1.29 million new cars were sold in the 28-nation bloc, a tally close to that of May 2008, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA) ...

  Vilnius, Lithuania / AFP The European Commission is expected to launch legal action against France over its application of the national minimum wage to foreign truck drivers, a top EU official said. Brussels will send a formal letter launching the procedure “in a few hours”, said Elzbieta Bienkowska, the EU’s internal market chief. “From the single market perspective it raises ...

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent and ninth visit to China to attend the annual government-to-government consultations might have been the most difficult one so far. This time Merkel arrived with a much longer list of pressing issues to discuss than before, including issues such as market economy status, overcapacity in steel exports, the South China Sea dispute, and the ...