Belgium

05 Feb 2019; DW: Robbers raided dozens of safe deposit boxes from a bank in Belgium at the weekend after tunneling in, prosecutors said.

The thieves tunneled up into the vault of an Antwerp branch of BNP Paribas via a nearby sewer system.

At 1:34 p.m. (12:34 UTC) the bank's alarm was triggered despite the vault door remaining locked. By the time authorities made it into the vault, thieves had opened and robbed 20 to 30 deposit boxes and fled into the tunnel.

01 Feb 2019; AFP: Several EU countries on Friday seized and destroyed suspect beef from a Polish slaughterhouse where allegedly sick cows were butchered, as French authorities said some of the meat had already been sold to customers.

Warsaw has attempted to reassure affected countries and says the meat does not pose a health risk.

01 Feb 2019; DW: If Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, UK citizens should still be able to visit the bloc visa-free for up to 90 days, ambassadors of the remaining 27 EU nations said on Friday. The 90 days can be taken in any 180-day period, the envoys said in Brussels. 

31 Jan 2019; AFP: Growth in the eurozone slowed sharply to 1.8 percent in 2018, data showed Thursday, as a recovery ran out of steam on worries over the US-China trade war and Brexit.

The economy expanded by a comparatively booming 2.4 percent in 2017.

The dampened outlook is a huge disappointment to policy-makers as growth in the eurozone had until recently been regarded as one of the strongest engines of the global economy.

01 Feb 2019; DW: More than 50 major organizations on Friday accused European Union leaders of having "allowed themselves to become complicit in the tragedy unfolding before their eyes" in the Mediterranean, saying more than 5,300 people have died over the past two years.

01 Feb 2019; DW: A free trade agreement between Japan and the EU entered into force on February 1, covering 635 million people and almost one-third of the world's economy.

Dubbed the world's largest free trade agreement, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement removes duties on almost all agricultural and industrial products and opens up the service sector and procurement. It also moves to eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade.

ANKARA; 31 Jan 2019; AA: The European Union ended 2018 with an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent, the EU's statistical office reported on Thursday.

On a yearly basis, the unemployment rate in the EU fell 0.6 percentage points compared to 7.2 percent in December, 2017.

"Eurostat estimates that 16.3 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 12.9 million in the euro area, were unemployed in December 2018," statistical office said.

BRUSSELS, January 25. /TASS/. NATO believes that US strike drones and target missiles for ballistic defense do not violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

"These issues have been discussed for several years, the question of UAVs, ballistic and target missiles, which are used to test ballistic defense. These systems are not in violation of the INF treaty," the NATO chief said, responding to a question from TASS at a press conference on the results of the Russia-NATO Council session in Brussels.

BRUSSELS, January 22. /TASS/. US plans to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) will be the focus of attention at the next ambassadorial meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, the Russian mission to NATO said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Preparations continue for the next meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, which will focus on the INF Treaty situation," the statement reads. "We expect the meeting to take place in the near future," the mission added.

22 Jan 2019; DW: The EU has fined Mastercard €570 million for limiting competition between banks offering cheaper payment fees. The European Commission said Mastercard's actions harmed consumers and retailers in the bloc.

The European Commission on Tuesday fined Mastercard €570 million ($648 million) for preventing retailers from looking for better card payment terms at banks around Europe.