Fernando González Urbaneja| The European Commissioner for Competition, the Dane Margrethe Vestager, wanted to recruit an American expert with good credentials as her chief economist: Yale professor and competition expert Fiona Scott. The American was the best qualified, but her status as a non-European citizen was not acceptable to some governments, especially the French government, which used the concept of strategic autonomy to veto the professor. The informal veto was…

The lack of rainfall during the first half of this year, barely alleviated by the heavy rains at the end of May and the first part of June, is taking an unprecedented toll on the Spanish agricultural insurance system, known as Agroseguro (Agrupación Española de Entidades Aseguradoras de los Seguros Agrarios Combinados). According to figures released this Thursday and reported in the digital newspaper “La Información”, as of July 13,…