The endorsement matters because the European Central Bank needs Parliament’s legislative approval before it can issue a digital euro, meaning its goal of a 2029 launch depends on lawmakers signing off

International News via Reuters:

The European Parliament gave its first major backing to the digital euro on Tuesday, endorsing the European Council’s negotiating stance for a central bank digital currency with both online and offline functionality.

The endorsement matters because the European Central Bank needs Parliament’s legislative approval before it can issue a digital euro, meaning its goal of a 2029 launch depends on lawmakers signing off.

The assembly’s position marks a shift from earlier parliamentary proposals focused solely on offline payments and signals closer alignment with the ECB on safeguarding the bloc’s monetary sovereignty.

The ECB has been developing a digital euro to preserve the role of central bank money in an increasingly digital economy and to reduce reliance on non‑European payment providers.

Fraying transatlantic relations and growing geopolitical risks have stoked concerns about the fragmentation of EU payments services and the bloc’s dependence on U.S. providers such as Visa or Mastercard – with some countries lacking altogether a domestic payment network.

The project, however, met resistance from bank lobbies in countries such as Germany and progress in parliament stalled, with the draft stuck for more than two years — far longer than the ECB expected.

MEPs on Tuesday approved two amendments to parliament’s resolution on the ECB’s 2025 annual report, calling for a digital euro that ensures equal access to payment services and provides a new form of public money usable both online and offline.

Lawmakers also underlined that a digital euro is essential to bolstering EU monetary sovereignty and deepening the single market while reducing fragmentation in retail payments.

“These votes are a big win for the progress of the digital euro,” said Laura Casonato, head of policy at Positive Money Europe, a not‑for-profit organisation advocating a digital version of cash.

“There is now a clear parliamentary majority in favour of an inclusive future form of cash — money in digital form backed by the central bank, making it safe,” she said.

The parliament also urged the ECB to step up monitoring of crypto‑assets, warning that the shift to digital payments, if left to private and non‑EU providers, risks creating new forms of exclusion for users and merchants.

Reporting by Valentina Za, Editing by William Maclean

Ireland began the three-year trial in 2022 to help artists recover from COVID-19 shutdowns

International News via Reuters:

Ireland rolled out a permanent basic income scheme for the arts on Tuesday, pledging to pay 2,000 creative workers 325 euros ($387) per week following a trial that participants said eased financial strain and allowed them to spend more time on projects.

Ireland began the three-year trial in 2022 to help artists recover from COVID-19 shutdowns. While similar pilots have been tried in San Francisco and New York, Ireland’s Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan said the scheme was the first permanent one of its kind in the world.

The move will “set Ireland apart from other countries with regard to how we value culture and creativity,” O’Donovan said, launching the scheme in the James Joyce Room at Bewley’s Cafe, a Dublin cultural institution which hosts lunch-time theatre performances.

“This is a gigantic step forward that other countries are not doing.”

The randomly selected applicants will receive the payments for three years, after which they would not be eligible for the next three-year cycle. O’Donovan said he would like to increase the number of recipients over time.

Over 8,000 applicants applied for the 2,000 places in the pilot scheme.

A report on the trial found it lowered the likelihood of artists experiencing enforced deprivation, and reduced their levels of anxiety and reliance on supplementary income.

It also recouped more than the trial’s net cost of 72 million euros ($86 million) through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other social welfare payments, according to a government-commissioned cost-benefit analysis.

“The scheme was a real-world test of what happens when people are given stability instead of precarity,” said composer and designer Peter Power, a member of the National Campaign for the Arts group.

“Artists on the scheme spent more time creating and less time trapped in unrelated jobs just to survive, and many became better able to sustain themselves through their work alone.”

($1 = 0.8403 euros)

Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Aidan Lewis

The plants will probably be based in continental Europe and the first will open in 2028, using Ryanair’s financial strength to purchase spare parts early at a time of industry-wide shortages

International News via Reuters:

Budget airline giant Ryanair and jet engine maker CFM International have signed an agreement to support the planned opening of two Ryanair engine‑maintenance shops with a guaranteed flow of spare parts, the companies said on Tuesday.

The plants will probably be based in continental Europe and the first will open in 2028, using Ryanair’s financial strength to purchase spare parts early at a time of industry-wide shortages, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told a news conference.

Wearing a French rugby shirt days after Les Bleus defeated Ireland at the Stade de France, the Irish airline boss joked about prices charged for parts by engine makers but acknowledged the industry needed to improve returns after years of losses.

“Beware the French bearing gifts; this is going to cost me,” the Irish airline boss said as he signed the 15-year deal.

Under the agreement Ryanair will purchase all its engine parts from CFM, without resorting to independent third-party shops, O’Leary said.

The value of the deal was not given but the companies said it involved “multi-billion” dollars.

Reporting by Tim Hepher, Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Louise Heavens

A healthcare crisis was unleashed from February 2024 to late 2025 after walkouts by thousands of trainee doctors to protest similar, but larger increases during the tenure of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol

International News via Reuters:

South Korea plans to boost medical student numbers by 16% in 2027 and further in subsequent years, the health ministry said on Tuesday, a step criticised by a doctors’ association after similar plans triggered nationwide protests in 2024.

A healthcare crisis was unleashed from February 2024 to late 2025 after walkouts by thousands of trainee doctors to protest similar, but larger increases during the tenure of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The current plan is to increase the quota of medical students to 3,548 in 2027, up 490 from 2024, in an effort to strengthen regional, essential and public healthcare facilities, the ministry said in a briefing.

It will continue phased increases until a total of 3,871 students is reached in 2030, the ministry added.

“The plan … was derived after discussions,” said Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong. “The government will communicate with medical staff and the public with a humble attitude.”

Jeong, appointed by current President Lee Jae Myung who came to power in June last year, was referring to the prior difficulties that stemmed from disagreement over the increases.

The Korean Medical Association, which represents medical practitioners, criticised the move in earlier remarks as “irresponsible”, and based on “poor estimates and distorted data”.

It was unclear whether doctors will agitate again against the new measure.

Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

He added that replacing U.S. strategic enablers, such as space intelligence data and air-to-air refuelling, with European capabilities should be a key priority for the bloc

International News via Reuters:

Europe needs a European defence union in order to take responsibility for its own defence, EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said on Tuesday.

“European responsibility for defence demands an institutional framework for our cooperation. A European defence union,” Kubilius said in a speech in European Parliament.

He added that replacing U.S. strategic enablers, such as space intelligence data and air-to-air refuelling, with European capabilities should be a key priority for the bloc.

Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Bart Meijer

Ireland’s DPC is the lead privacy regulator for most of the U.S. tech giants due to their EU head offices being located in Ireland

International News via Reuters:

Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp on Tuesday won backing from Europe’s top court for its challenge to a fine that was increased to 225 million euros ($268 million) by the EU privacy watchdog, a ruling that could pave the way for similar action by other companies. 

Ireland’s DPC is the lead privacy regulator for most of the U.S. tech giants due to their EU head offices being located in Ireland. It fined WhatsApp following complaints about its use of personal data in the country, later increasing the penalty it imposed after the European Data Protection Board intervened in 2021.

The DPC has only collected 17.5 million euros of the more than 4 billion euros it has fined large tech companies for GDPR breaches since 2020 due to all but two of its completed investigations being subjected to lengthy legal challenges, many to similar EDPB interventions. 

Meta had lost its initial appeal against the higher penalty after judges at a lower tribunal said it had no legal standing to sue the authority as the EDPB’s decision was directed to the Irish watchdog and not to the company.

AN ACT OPEN TO CHALLENGE

The Court of Justice of the European Union on Tuesday disagreed, saying that WhatsApp’s action is admissible and telling the lower tribunal to examine the case on its merits.

“The EDPB’s decision is indeed an act open to challenge before the Courts of the European Union,” the Luxembourg-based institution said.

“That decision was of direct concern to WhatsApp, since it brought about a distinct change in the legal position of that undertaking, without leaving any discretion to its addressees,” judges said.

A WhatsApp spokesperson welcomed the judgment. 

“(It) upholds our argument that those businesses and people should be able to challenge decisions the EDPB makes against them, so that it can be held fully accountable by the EU courts.” 

Clarity from the courts on how WhatsApp’s 2021 penalty was calculated would allow a number of the other appeals to progress. 

The case is C-97/23P WhatsApp Ireland v EDPB.

($1 = 0.8403 euros)

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Kirsten Donovan