Europe

Investors are souring on the pound as the U.K. prepares to start the legal proceedings to leave the European Union, sending the currency back toward three-decade lows even as officials forecast a resilient economy.

The European Union’s top court ruled private employers can ban the Muslim head scarf, saying in its first decision on the Continent-wide controversy that curbs on religious symbols in the workplace don’t constitute discrimination.

British lawmakers removed the final hurdle to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to start talks on the U.K. leaving the EU, setting the stage for unwinding 40 years of close and complex cross-Channel ties.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she plans to seek approval to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence before the U.K. exits the European Union, expected in early 2019.

The German chancellor meets her new American counterpart for the first time this week amid gaping differences over a host of trade and other policies clouding a vital trans-Atlantic relationship.

Dutch voters are heading to the polls on Wednesday in a highly anticipated general election seen as a bellwether for how nationalist, populist forces will fare later this year in other key European nations.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is trying to beat back populism—and anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders—by co-opting it. His message for immigrants: Adapt or go home.

Britain’s minister for leaving the European Union urged lawmakers not to restrain Prime Minister Theresa May’s freedom to negotiate a Brexit deal in talks she could trigger as early as this week.

The Dutch government withdrew landing permission for the Turkish foreign minister’s aircraft and escorted another minister to the German border, escalating a diplomatic dispute between the two NATO allies over campaigning for a Turkish referendum on constitutional reform.

The divide between the European Union’s more affluent western nations and its less well-off members to the east deepened on Friday, as their leaders wrangled over the future of the bloc after the U.K. exits.

Investors increasingly say that no matter what comes out of Europe’s fraught political calendar, the region’s bond yields are going higher

Germany’s new draft budget shows that Europe’s biggest economy remains far from meeting President Donald Trump’s demands for higher military spending, even as it slowly lifts its defense expenditures.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin Friday to discuss their cooperation over Syria and possible energy deals in the face of Ankara’s flagging ties with the West.

A look at the polls, candidates, situations, markets and political history for three European elections: the Dutch vote on March 15, the first round of the French presidential election on April 23 and the Sept. 24 general election in Germany.

Concerns over growing unrest have pushed the sensitive region to the top of EU leaders’ agenda at their spring summit starting Thursday in Brussels, Laurence Norman writes.

A 36-year-old man who police said had “apparent psychological problems” injured seven people with an ax Thursday evening at the main train station in the German city of Düsseldorf.

The European Central Bank hinted at the beginning of the end of its massive monetary stimulus, but stopped short of a significant move to rein it in, brushing off concerns that its policies are excessive as the eurozone’s economy picks up speed.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is rattled at the possibility that Brexit talks will collapse, leaving the U.K. to crash out of the EU with no deal, Simon Nixon writes.

Philip Hammond presented fresh economic forecasts in a low-key parliamentary performance that focused more on ironing out wrinkles in personal taxes than the potential challenges of Brexit.