Despite two hefty bailout packages for Greece and Italy, the establishment of a permanent crisis resolution mechanism, harsh austerity measures and reassurances from leaders, Europe&rsquo;s debt crisis does not seem to be going away. In fact, the latest fear centres not on the known weak links of the euro zone such as Portugal and Spain, but stronger economies such as Italy, Belgium and even Germany.

Euro zone crisis racing ahead of convincing ideas

Business Standard

Struggle for agreed response to fissures within, amidst shifting world stage, shakes once-basic assumptions.

The European Union in 2010: Shrink-wrapped in gloom

Despite strong indications that a resolution to the generic drug seizure dispute between the European Union (EU) and India would be announced on Friday, at the 11th EU-India Summit in Brussels, no mention of the matter was in fact made.

India, EU expect FTA by spring of 2011

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Brussels today, ahead of the 11th European Union (EU)-India summit on Friday. The summit will be the first one to be held since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect. The Lisbon Treaty was a series of changes to the European Union&rsquo;s rule book, meant in part to enhance the bloc&rsquo;s foreign policy and global strategic heft.

EU-India relations in the spotlight

Diverse and democratic, the European Union and India can claim to share a similar temperament. Yet, theirs is a relationship that remains underdeveloped and underwhelming. The EU has tended to focus its attention on China, the country it trades to the tune of almost euro300 billion with. While India prefers to deal with individual European member states like the UK and France bilaterally, rather than invest time and resources on an EU unable to speak with one voice on the issues it cares about.

Europe and India: In search of a strategy

In the clearest indication from the European Commission yet that a resolution to the ongoing dispute between New Delhi and Brussels regarding generic drug seizures had been reached, a senior EC official told reporters on Wednesday that the EU was &ldquo;open to changing&rdquo; the offending regulation.

EU, India close to solving dispute over drug seizures

India and the EU will announce a progress report on the ongoing free trade negotiations this Friday at the 11th EU-India summit in Brussels. Philippe de Buck, secretary general of Business Europe, the most influential EU industry lobby in the region, spoke to Pallavi Aiyar to reflect on the European businesses&rsquo; perspective on the potential trade accord.

Q&A: Philippe de Buck, Secretary general, Business Europe

A chateau in southern Belgium houses one of Europe&rsquo;s largest Iskcon temples. Pallavi Aiyar visits the medieval building to find a community struggling for recognition.

A Belgian chateau for Krishna

Sitting in his castle perched on a hilltop above the Alpine city of Vaduz, His Serene Highness, Prince Alois, the hereditary prince of Liechtenstein spoke to Pallavi Aiyar about his upcoming six-day state visit to India, his first to the country. Flanked by Switzerland and Austria on either side, Liechtenstein has only 36,000 citizens making it one of the smallest countries in the world, but also one of the richest in per capita terms.

Q&A: Prince Alois, Liechtenstein

Tucked away in a mist-shrouded sliver of the Alps, the country of Liechtenstein rarely registers on the mental map of the world. This 160-square kilometre-large nation is home to just 36,000 people and has neither an airport nor an international railway station within its territory. The fastest route from the north to the south of the country entails leaving Liechtenstein all together and driving along the highway in either neighbouring Austria or Switzerland.

Liechtenstein woos dentists from Bollywood

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the transatlantic military alliance synonymous with the Cold War, is in search of a facelift. A two-day Nato Summit being held in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on November 19 and 20, is aimed at setting the organisation upon a new path at a time when the alliance is beset with existential crises.

NATO on course for new strategic concept

Six months after a slow and fractious negotiation process ended in a European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout of a debt-wracked Greece, Ireland became the second eurozone economy to need an emergency rescue.

Ireland seeks a bailout seen at up to euro 100 bn

Days after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) concluded a major summit in Lisbon intended to update its mission and methods to keep up with changing times, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for stepped-up contacts with India. In an exclusive interview with Business Standard, Rasmussen insisted that the military alliance&rsquo;s relations with close ally Pakistan would not be developed at the expense of India, while lamenting the fact that despite an array of shared interests, there was virtually no formal contact between Nato and New Delhi.

Nato asks for dialogue with India

When Mahesh Krishnamoorthy, an information technology professional from Chennai, was offered a job with Hewlett Packard to work in Brussels on creating a payroll engine for the Federal Police of Belgium, he was thrilled.

Freer intra-EU shifts for foreign professionals

China and India, muscular economies whose emergence is re-orientalising the world, may be neighbours, but they are beasts of a different temperament. This divergence was pithily symbolised by the differential nature and outcome of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and its poor relation, the recently held Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Pallavi Aiyar: A tale of two Games

China will continue to buy Spanish public debt, despite market jitters about the country&rsquo;s fiscal prospects, announced Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang ahead of a three-day visit to Madrid.

China says it will buy more Spanish debt

Accusations of media censorship and discriminatory practices against foreign companies are charges that in the European Union tend to be associated with countries like China. But as the New Year gets underway, these are allegations that the EU finds itself investigating against one of its own members, Hungary.

Fresh fissures within the European Union

In 2008, there were 64,000 unfilled job vacancies for engineers alone in only Germany, according to Maria Asenius, Head of Cabinet for the European Commissioner for Home Affairs.

EU's jobs-skills dilemma

As Portugal successfully held its first bond auction of the year, buying temporary relief from concerns that it was imminently in need of a bailout, a new era of more tightly coordinated economic governance between European Union member-states was formally launched today.

Tighter dancing for all, EU tells its members

With the pressure on for the European Union (EU) and India to come up with a significant announcement at the upcoming EU-India summit on December 10, a flurry of activity surrounding the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) is giving momentum to the process.

Stepped-up talks revive hope of India-EU FTA

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said now that clarity had been achieved, &ldquo;we are hoping for calm and reality in the financial markets,&rdquo; where he said speculation against euro zone countries was &ldquo;hardly rational.

Pallavi Aiyar

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