Law enforcement agents in four countries carried out coordinated raids on Wednesday targeting fraudulent Chinese imports to the EU, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday. The EPPO-led investigation alleges that criminal networks defrauded the EU of an estimated €700 million through large-scale customs and VAT fraud involving textiles, shoes, e-scooters, e-bikes and other goods imported from China, the EPPO said in a statement. The proceeds were then laundered and sent back to China, it said. Authorities conducted 101 searches on Wednesday across Bulgaria, Greece, France and Spain, the EPPO said.  Ten suspects, including two customs officers, were arrested, and law enforcement seized €5.8 million in various currencies, 27 vehicles, luxury items, 11 properties, and thousands of shipping containers and e-vehicles, according to the EPPO. The goods in the scheme were mainly brought in through the Piraeus Port in Greece, investigators said. In 2019, the EU’s anti-fraud investigators found that customs officials at the Chinese-owned Piraeus failed to stop fraudulent imports.  The imports were substantially undervalued or misclassified to evade customs duties, and their destinations were falsified to avoid paying VAT in the country of entry. EPPO alleges the goods were then transported using false documents to France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, where they were sold on the black market.

LONDON — Keir Starmer plans to formally sign the U.K.-India trade deal with Narendra Modi on a visit to India this summer. Starmer has touted the deal as part of his success on the international stage since it was agreed in early May after three years of talks. At the G20 summit late last year, Britain’s leader accepted an invitation from Modi to visit India. Britain’s PM is planning to travel to New Delhi this summer to finalize the pact, two people close to the planning process told POLITICO. Starmer hailed a “new era for trade and the economy” as a result of the deal, while Modi said it would “catalyze trade, investment, growth, job creation, and innovation in both our economies.” Britain’s Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is meeting Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal Tuesday to discuss implementing the pact and pushing forward with talks on the as-yet-unfinished investment treaty that goes with it. The two are meeting in Paris on the sidelines of the OECD trade ministers meeting. India’s parliament is “very fond” of the deal, said Indian MP Ravi Shankar Prasad. “It shows the depth of our relationship,” Prasad, who is leading a delegation of parliamentarians visiting the U.K. this week, told reporters at the Indian High Commission in London Tuesday. The pact is the most valuable trade deal the U.K. has struck since leaving the EU, and could increase the U.K.’s GDP by £4.8 billion by 2040, according to British estimates. The deal aims to cut through high tariffs on U.K. goods in India with 85 percent becoming tariff-free within a decade. The effect will be equivalent to slashing £1 billion in tariffs after 10 years.  Measures include immediately slashing India’s 150 percent tariff on Scotch whisky in half before it is cut to 40 percent after ten years. Duties on the auto sector will drop from 100 percent to 10 percent with quotas on both sides for the sensitive sector. Indian duties will also be lowered on cosmetics, aerospace, medical devices, electrical machinery and agriculture and food. Britain will lower tariffs on textiles, footwear, frozen prawns and other food products. While U.K. negotiators resisted granting more visas for Indian students studying in the U.K., the Indian side has talked up an ““unprecedented” win on its workers being exempt from employee tax contributions in Britain — triggering some pushback from U.K. opposition parties. The official text of the agreement has not yet been published and will only be delivered to parliaments in both countries once Starmer and Modi sign the pact. Indian officials have said the deal is currently undergoing legal scrubbing so that it can be signed within three months of its agreement, which took place on May 6. Downing Street declined to comment.

LONDON — After three years of hard-fought negotiations, the U.K. and India finally have a trade deal they can agree on. Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi agreed the deal in a call Tuesday after an intensive negotiating sprint by trade officials in London last week. Striking the deal became a top economic priority for both nations as U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a series of major tariff actions on its biggest trading partners. “We are now in a new era for trade and the economy,” Starmer said as the deal was announced on Tuesday. “Today we have agreed a landmark deal with India — one of the fastest growing economies in the world, which will grow the economy and deliver for British people and business.” Modi said the landmark deal will “further deepen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and catalyse trade, investment, growth, job creation, and innovation in both our economies. I look forward to welcoming PM Starmer to India soon.” The pact is the most valuable post-Brexit trade deal the U.K. has struck since leaving the European Union. An economic forecast by the British government suggests the deal will increase the U.K.’s GDP by £4.8 billion by 2040. Negotiators have been working around the clock on the deal since Britain’s Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds traveled to Delhi in February to relaunch the deal with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal following elections in both countries last year. Goyal and Reynolds were nearly able push the deal over the line when India’s trade chief returned to London Friday following visits to Oslo and Brussels. The two put the finishing touches to the pact over the weekend. Negotiators, however, were unable to secure a Bilateral Investment Treaty being sought in parallel with talks for the trade agreement. Negotiations to secure an investment treaty continue. SLASHING TARIFFS As it stands, the deal will cut through high tariffs on U.K. goods in India with 85 percent becoming tariff-free within a decade. The effect will be equivalent to slashing £1 billion in tariffs after 10 years.  Measures include lowering India’s 150 percent tariff on Scotch whisky by half immediately, before it is cut to 40 percent after ten years. Duties on the auto sector will drop from 100 percent to 10 percent with quotas on both sides for the sensitive sector. Indian duties will also be lowered on cosmetics, aerospace, medical devices, electrical machinery and agriculture and food. Britain will lower tariffs on textiles, footwear, frozen prawns and other food products. Talks stalled under the previous Conservative government over concerns about migration, better access for services firms and a host of other issues. Last month saw negotiators overcame a significant hurdle in the talks when they closed the mobility chapter, which governs inter-company transfers. India conceded Britain will only offer minor changes to its visa regime. Negotiators also resolved another sticking point in the talks with India securing a “Double Contribution Convention,” allowing firms to claw back payments to Britain’s state pension pot for those on short-stay visas. Britain’s nascent tax on high-carbon emissions imports is of significant concern for India. Yet this won’t be dealt with in the trade deal and is part of ongoing bilateral discussions. Modi is racing to transform India into a developed nation by 2047. Its economy overtook Japan’s as the world’s fourth largest globally this year and is projected to take the third spot by 2028. This developing story is being updated.

The European Commission is considering slapping tariffs of up to 25 percent on a broad range of exports from the United States in response to tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to an internal Commission document seen by POLITICO. The EU executive wants to impose a 25 percent duty on a wide range of U.S. exports, including soybeans, sweet corn, rice, almonds, orange juice, cranberries, tobacco, iron, steel, aluminum, certain boats and vehicles, textiles and certain clothes, and various types of makeup. The total amount of U.S. exports hit by the EU’s tariffs is €22.1 billion based on the EU’s 2024 imports, according to public Eurostat figures, falling short of the Commission’s estimates of hitting €26 billion to “mirror” the damage from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The list of countermeasures was up for negotiation among the bloc’s member countries, with France, Italy and Ireland leading the charge to ensure Brussels excludes bourbon whiskey in a bid to shield the spirits sector from tariff reprisals by Trump.  In a political victory for those countries, bourbon whiskey no longer appears on the lists.  EU capitals will vote on the countermeasures on Wednesday. If it goes through, most of the tariffs are expected to take effect May 16, while for some goods (including almonds) the new duties will kick in at the start of December, the document reads. The Commission document was first reported by Reuters and MLex. The European Commission is considering slapping tariffs of up to 25 percent on a broad range of exports from the US in response to tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum by U.S. President Donald Trump. | Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and the main political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been arrested. So what is Europe doing about it? Staying pretty quiet, it seems. Mass protests are breaking out across Turkey but Brussels is keeping its counsel. In this episode Sarah Wheaton speaks with Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former journalist in Turkey, about what’s really driving Erdoğan’s shift toward authoritarianism and how Europe is responding — especially with a view to Turkey’s growing importance for European security. But Europe’s focus isn’t all on defense. We also examine some of the EU’s overlooked policy changes, from food and textile waste to agriculture and medicine shortages. Sarah is joined by Politico’s experts on sustainability, agriculture and health — Marianne Gros, Bartosz Brzeziński and Rory O’Neill — for an insightful dive into what’s going on behind the scenes.

BRUSSELS — Europeans’ soaring appetite for fast fashion — accelerated by the ease of online marketplaces — is putting immense pressure on the environment, according to a report from the EU’s top environmental watchdog.  New data from the European Environment Agency shows that EU citizens are buying more textile products through online shopping than ever before, and especially from brands that sell cheaper products in large volumes, otherwise known as fast fashion.  The report comes as EU institutions are finalizing new rules for textile waste management across Europe, which will make fashion brands pay a fee for the processing of their products once they become waste, in an attempt to encourage them to sell more sustainable and longer-lasting items. In 2022, EU citizens bought about 19 kilograms of new clothes, shoes and other household fabrics each — up from 17 kilograms in 2019 —  yet throwing out as much as 16 kilograms of clothes annually. This created about 7 million metric tons of textile waste across the bloc: Enough to fill a large suitcase per person each year.  The report states that 85 percent of these discarded clothes aren’t reused or recycled, and often end up getting burnt or landfilled. As of January, EU countries are supposed to have separate collection systems in place for textile waste to prevent this from happening.  By 2030, the EU wants all textile products that are placed on the EU market to be durable, repairable and recyclable. Online marketplaces and social media have “been instrumental in the growth of fast fashion in recent years,” the EEA’s report notes, allowing retailers “to constantly offer consumers new styles at exceedingly low prices.” Without the possibility of trying before purchasing, people are more likely to buy several sizes of the same items and opting to return, resell, or even throw out the products that don’t fit. But on average, up to 44 percent of returns never reach a new customer and get destroyed.  Out of all the different types of products that European households consume — like food, gas and electricity, or health products — garments and footwear are the fifth most resource-intensive category.   According to the report, 234 million metric tons of raw materials, like fuel and cotton, were used to produce all the textile consumed by EU households. That’s a lot less than in 2010, however, which suggests that fewer resources are needed per item of clothing. 

France is still trying to find a “blocking” minority in the EU to prevent Brussels from finalizing a landmark trade deal with Latin American countries that would hurt French farmers, President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday. Speaking at the opening of France’s annual agricultural show in Paris, Macron said farmers should not be “an adjustment tool for purchasing power … nor an adjustment tool for trade agreements.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sealed the free-trade agreement last December, after 25 years of talks between the EU and Latin American countries that are part of Mercosur, which now includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Bolivia. The trade deal still needs to be approved by at least 15 of the EU’s 27 member countries, representing at least 65 percent of the bloc’s population. The Mercosur agreement is expected to unlock billions for the European economy by reducing tariffs on a range of EU exports including cars, wine, textiles and IT equipment — while also boosting EU access to raw materials from the region like lithium, and agricultural goods. Europe’s farmers — especially in France, but also in Poland and Italy — have long rejected the deal, fearing competition from cheap Brazilian or Argentinian beef that is produced to lower environmental standards. The Commission has claimed such fears are overblown.

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled Thursday that German shoe maker Birkenstock’s world-famous sandals can’t be considered “works of art” that enjoy copyright protection. By claiming copyright, Birkenstock had aimed to squeeze similar-looking but cheaper versions of its sandals off the market.  “The shoe is influenced by Brutalist architecture. This can be seen very clearly in individual elements of the shoe. We are therefore absolutely convinced that the shoe is an iconic design,” Birkenstock lawyer Konstantin Wegner told German public broadcaster ARD.  The company sued producers of Birkenstock-like footwear at a regional court in Cologne, which initially granted them the right to label their contoured cork footbeds as works of art. But a higher court in Cologne rejected the claim, saying mere handicraft wasn’t enough to claim there was an artistic idea behind the object’s design. Birkenstock appealed, but the Federal Court of Justice ruled the higher court had been correct in saying the company had failed to prove the design of the sandal was based on artistic considerations.  “For copyright protection, a degree of design must be achieved that shows individuality,” the court stated. After the ruling the company expressed disappointment but said it would continue to take legal action against imitators of their sandals.

LJUBLJANA — It’s a story known around the world: A village girl from a communist country rises to become the first foreign-born United States first lady in more than a century. But according to locals, much of Melania Trump’s early life — particularly her background and the history of the small Austrian-influenced Slavic country split between Central Europe and the Balkans — has been heavily exoticized for American audiences. “The mischaracterization and misinterpretation of our people certainly angers those of us in Slovenia,” Srečko Ocvirk, the mayor of her hometown of Sevnica, told POLITICO. “The quality of life and level of development of our country was not represented in a factual manner,” he continued. Ocvirk remembers how, a decade ago, film crews and reporters from around the world descended on his picturesque hamlet, nestled between lush forests and mountains along the Sava River, eager to uncover juicy stories about the childhood of the woman once known as Melanija Knavs. When their search yielded little to go on, they defaulted to the familiar rags-to-riches narrative often attributed to individuals — especially women — originating from Eastern Europe. In her recently published autobiography, Melania challenges this narrative, echoing many of the sentiments often expressed by Slovenes when discussing her portrayal. While Slovenia was part of the socialist federation of Yugoslavia, it was far from resembling the Soviet Union in terms of general quality of life, individual rights and its relationship to the West. ‘REAL LIFE IN SLOVENIA’ Slovenia stood out for its industrial and cultural development during and before the 20th century. Melania’s hometown was home to renowned textile manufacturers like Lisca and Kopitarna shoemakers, tracing its roots back to the early days of 19th century industrialization. Melania’s hometown, Sevnica. | Jack Taylor/Getty Images With Donald Trump being inaugurated on Monday for another term, the initial shock value of having an American first lady who speaks accented English seems to have somewhat worn off the second time around. “The reporting has become much more balanced, and in a way, journalists and media companies seem to have finally caught up with real life in Slovenia,” Ocvirk said. Despite their ire, inhabitants of “Sevnica are happy for” the U.S. first lady, he said. “We perceive [Melania’s return to the White House] with satisfaction and pride, above all, those citizens who know the Knavs family and are their friends,” he concluded. Slovenian film director Jurij Gruden also felt the “Melania effect” when he decided to make the first documentary-length production on the first lady. He admits that he wasn’t particularly interested in her life until his foreign colleagues pointed out that this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for his home country — one worth documenting. “While making this documentary, I also got to experience what it means to be part of the Trump ecosystem in terms of the attention, but also at times the immediate and automatic condemnation it draws, even when you’re just doing a documentary,” he said. The reactions of colleagues and others was harsh when he told them what he was working on. “The polarization is insanely strong and it immediately affects you when you cover her or the Trumps in general,” explained Gruden. “It’s difficult to have a rational conversation, no matter what side of the political spectrum you belong to,” he said. ‘AN ATYPICAL SLOVENIAN’ Both Gruden and Ocvirk stressed that their interest in or support of Melania Trump was not a political endorsement of the policies of her husband. Do Slovenes resent Melania for anything? Perhaps for being very un-Slovene in her limited relationship with the country. “The reactions to Melania are still somewhat mixed. Some in Slovenia don’t like her because she seems to show barely any interest in [the] country itself, not having visited for many years,” explained Gruden. “This makes her an atypical Slovenian.” This is despite the fact that both Melania and her son, Barron, speak Slovenian and hold European Union citizenship. Notably, she is also the first American first lady to be an EU citizen. The current president of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, was Melania’s lawyer before she entered politics. Ultimately, the simplistic coverage of her background could boil down to the classic American disinterest in the complexities — and contradictions — of the old continent. “I’m thrilled she’s back. It might not be easy for people in the U.S., but for those of us watching from the sidelines, it’s going to be entertaining to follow,” Gruden concluded with a laugh.