Spain

The mini-summit of European Union leaders at Versailles on Monday had all the hallmarks of a French initiative: an imposing setting and grandiose rhetoric aimed at confirming France's role as a leader, when the fact is that Berlin's has complete dominance over "united" Europe.

Spain and Bayern Munich star Xabi Alonso has announced he would be retiring at the end of the season in a tweet he posted. The 35-year-old star, who has won top honours at club level with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, as well as two European championships and one world cup with Spain, posted a picture of him waving goodbye with the comment: “Lived it. Loved it.

According to the web-page “Armynow.net”, in a rather hostile and unexpected move, Spain through its Hydrographic Service, announced that the Turkish oceanographic vessel “Cesme” will conduct research on the Aegean Sea.

International Women’s Day is observed on March 8th every year, commemorating the struggle for women’s rights across the globe. To mark the occasion this year, Ipsos Mori released a new report on the state of gender equality in different countries.

Figures published by Eurostat are particularly discouraging for birth rates in Greece. According to the data, Greek women are bearing fewer children at a later stage in their lives, compared to the EU average. The numbers revealed that births had dropped in Greece by 10.2% between 2001-2015, when the respective numbers over the same period were up in the EU.

Beşiktaş, Turkey's sole remaining representative in European competitions, will visit Aegean neighbor Olympiacos in the first leg of a Europa League round of 16 matchup on March 9. 

Eurobank Financial Planning Services (FPS), is the second bad-loan management firm to obtain a license from the Greek authorities to operate in the local market. It follows the permit issued to Cepal, a joint venture by Alpha Bank and Aktua.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said late on Monday that the European Union will have problems if do not allow individual members to participate in various degrees of integration with each other.

Merkel made the comment in Paris after a meeting with the leaders of the four largest economies in the Eurozone - Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The leaders of Italy, Germany, France and Spain met in France to discuss the future of the European Union. After the meeting the four leaders came out with a common agenda and the same ideas about the future of the EU.

According to Eurostat, Greece remains the champion in unemployment rates among EU member states, with 23%. The data published by the European statistical services revealed that while the unemployment average was below 10% in the rest of the common currency union and stood at levels below 2009, Greece’s jobless rate was two and a half more.