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 …