BASF

The EU must urgently lower energy prices and ease regulations to stop industry fleeing the continent, European businesses said yesterday, as Brussels prepares plans to stimulate the green economy.

The European Union is racing to make Europe more attractive for the companies that could be tempted by massive U.S. and Chinese subsidies and lower energy costs.

The unstable weather over the country will last until August 10, said BASF's meteorologist Anastasia Stoycheva on Monday to bTV.

"We had a similar summer in 2014 when the temperatures were lower than usual. 2012 was unusually hot. Now we are more like the time in 2014. So far, the amount of rain in Sofia has exceeded the climate and more precipitation is expected, "Stoycheva said.

German chemicals giant BASF has agreed to merge its Wintershall oil and gas unit with the DEA energy firm owned by Russia’s billionaire entrepreneur Mikhail Fridman.

Arkansas is on the verge of banning the use, during the growing season, of a Monsanto-backed weedkiller that has been blamed for damaging millions of acres of crops in neighboring farms this year.

Germany has put all major arms exports to Turkey on hold due to the deteriorating human rights situation in the country and increasingly strained ties with its NATO ally, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Sept. 11.

The comments came after a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Berlin said another German couple was believed to have been detained in Turkey on political charges.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has strongly slammed Germany’s threats to impose economic sanctions on Turkey amid ongoing tension in ties, saying Germany will be the one to pay the price in the event that it imposes an embargo.

Turkey and Germany resolved an ongoing dispute over the former's alleged investigation on German companies for its links with the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) after the Turkish Interior Minister explained to his German counterpart the problem occurred due to a communication problem with Interpol.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Germany to "pull itself together" on July 21 amid an escalating row between the two countries, also refuting claims that German companies were under investigation in Turkey. 

The Turkish government has sought to stem the economic fall-out from a growing diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Germany, noting that German investments in Turkey were fully guaranteed by both Ankara and its laws.

Times are hard for many European firms, particularly German giants such as BMW, Puma, Lufthansa and Bosch. It appears these firms can't even afford an office of their own where they could advance their interests with the requisite comfort and equipment. For that reason, they end up crammed together under the same roof. It is often a humble, almost empty room.