03/02 – Today’s headlines from across the EU

EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT Europe – ChemChina close to $43 billion deal for Swiss rival Syngenta. Biggest Chinese foreign takeover. Agreement set to be unveiled today.

WSJE – Chinese suitor pursues Syngenta. Takeover deal valued at $43 billion would be top foreign purchase by a China-based firm.

INYT – Iowa results shrink field and refocus campaigns. Insurgents lose narrowly, jolting some candidates and giving a lift to others.

BBC Europe – Spain election: King asks Socialist Sanchez to form government. Pedro Sanchez of the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) has been asked by King Felipe VI to try to form a government, after December’s inconclusive polls. His party came second but acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was unable to form a coalition after failing to secure a parliamentary majority.

FRANCE

Le Monde – Google, the new King of Wall Street. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced record results, making its market value soar to $555 billion.

Les Echos – Real estate: cheap credit’s windfall. Banks have granted new loans totalling €200 billion, a record high. Loans renegotiations reached very high levels, in favour of low rates. In January, rates have begun falling again.

GERMANY

Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung (FAZ) – Cameron sees good basis for negotiations with Brussels. Prime Minister: substantial change for the EU and London’s relationship with the Union.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – Trump’s first defeat. Republican candidate for the US presidency weaker than expected. Democrat Hillary Clinton beats competitor Bernie Sanders with an extremely short lead.

ITALY

La Repubblica – Kerry to Italy: “Together against ISIS.” 1,000 soldiers in Iraq. Yesterday, an anti-ISIS summit was organised in Rome. According to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, the coalition will have to “crush ISIS on all fronts, but this war will be long.”

Il Sole 24 Ore – Oil prices under pressure, markets in free-fall. Both oil and bank bonds are shaking up markets, with stock exchanges across Europe reporting losses. Oil is under $30 a barrel, putting added pressure onto the economy.

POLAND

Gazette Wyborcza – EU is great with Britain. Donald Tusk presented a draft compromise between EU and London that is to stop the Brexit. “To be or not to be together. That is the question”, he wrote in a letter with concessions offered to the British.

SPAIN

El Pais – The King offers the government to Sanchez; Rajoy renounces again. The Socialist leader asks for at least one month to negotiate “with the right-wing and the left-wing.” Rajoy: “I cannot guarantee a stable government as long as the PSOE refuses dialogue.”

Expansion – Sanchez: “The PSOE assumes its responsibility with Spain” in order to form a government. The Secretary-General of the PSOE criticised the “escape” of Mariano Rajoy, “who has given up the promise thanks to which more than seven million people voted for him.”

The Times – Brussels will have right to reject benefit curbs. Britain’s right to limit benefits for European Union migrants will be at the mercy of MEPs who can veto the move under watered-down reforms secured by David Cameron yesterday.

The Guardian – Cameron wins May’s backing over Europe. Home secretary show hand and says Brussels proposal is “basis for a deal.”