Word: benelux
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...leaders presented their plan as a way to bolster the French-German axis in the E.U., which is considered key to further European integration. But the move angered Eastern European and Scandinavian countries, which see it as an attempt to impose a two-state directoire on the E.U. The Benelux countries, meanwhile, are throwing their support behind their own Prime Ministers - Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium, Peter Balkenende of Holland and Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg. (See pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy...
...slap in the face for Europe," says Philippe Moreau Defarges, European-affairs specialist for the French Institute of International Relations. "The U.K.'s habit of participating only in those E.U. projects it wants to be involved with" is a strike against a Blair presidency, he says. The Benelux countries - the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg - feel the same...
...said they'd pump $9.2 billion into troubled bank Dexia after news of its U.S.-linked losses sent its share price falling 30%. That followed Sunday's announcement that Fortis, the Dutch-Belgian insurance and banking giant, had been partially nationalized through a $16.4 billion injection from the three Benelux governments, each of which will acquire a 49% stake in operations in their respective countries. In Britain, meanwhile, the government announced this week it had taken control of problem mortgages from Bradford & Bingley, Britain's second biggest mortgage lender. Despite those moves amid the spreading U.S. crisis, however, observers believe...
...obvious that Fortis had committed a catastrophic folly. Less than a year after the blockbuster deal, the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments agreed to inject $16 billion into an ailing Fortis, laid low by ongoing uncertainty in global credit markets. In return for the lifeline, each of the three Benelux governments took a 49% share in Fortis' banking units in their own countries. The part-nationalization of Belgium's biggest lender, which, with a worldwide staff of 85,000, is Europe's largest to be bailed out so far since the credit crisis began. It was a last resort, coming...
...Some E.U. leaders have attempted to counter their jet-setting image by plane-pooling. The prime ministers of the Benelux nations - Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, the Netherlands's Jan Peter Balkenende and Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker - will share rather than each take a private plane. Similarly, Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt will travel with Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and their Finnish and Estonian counterparts Matti Vanhanen and Andrus Ansip will also share planes...