The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy — also known as CAP — is a 58-billion-euro system of farm aid that accounts for the bloc’s biggest single budget expense. And it has long been a punching bag for euroskeptics. The UK press for years excoriated the “butter mountains” supported by EU money. Even after production quotas went away, critics accused the ...

It’s a deal linking Shanghai and Zurich, but the real target looks to be London. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. is in talks to invest at least $2 billion in Swiss Re AG, Manuel Baigorri of Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Shanghai-based China Pacific is the country’s third-largest insurer, while Zurich-based Swiss Re is Switzerland’s biggest ...

The European Union’s 555 billion-euro ($600 billion) lending arm, the European Investment Bank, will choose this month whether to sign off on a plan to ditch fossil fuel projects almost entirely and boost support for clean-energy finance. The decision has been delayed by pushback from Germany and some central European nations. That says a lot about Berlin’s muddled approach to ...