The Keel
Past editions
Read past editions of The Keel in full. Policy on Tuesdays. Business on Thursdays.
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Business
China’s industrial surge is forcing Germany to rewrite its business model
Germany is facing a second wave of disruption from China, this time not as an offshore production challenge but as a direct contest in capital-intensive, high-skill sectors that once underpinned Europe’s industrial strength. The…
4 min read -
Business
US trade pressure raises the cost of strategic ambiguity for European business
The immediate development is less about a single trade instrument than about a change in bargaining posture from the United States toward the European Union. For European companies, the real issue is that trade…
4 min read -
Business
Record western European heat is becoming an operating condition, not a seasonal anomaly
Western Europe's record June-July temperatures mark another shift from climate risk as a forecast to climate stress as a live operating constraint. The immediate issue is not only physical disruption, such as lower labour…
4 min read -
Business
Europe's early heatwave is becoming an operational stress test for business
A developing heatwave across Europe is pushing climate risk from boardroom abstraction into day-to-day operations. The immediate issue is not only higher cooling demand, but the way heat amplifies several pressures at once: weaker…
4 min read -
Business
EU regulators signal a shift from national oversight to tighter bloc-level market supervision
Europe's market watchdogs are no longer treating cross-border supervision as a technical debate. They are positioning it as a competitiveness issue for the capital markets union, with the implicit view that fragmented national oversight…
4 min read -
Business
Hungary tests a mediator role, but the signal for business is political positioning, not imminent peace
Hungary is trying to recast itself from an awkward EU outlier into a usable diplomatic intermediary. That matters less because talks are close, and more because it shows smaller member states are competing to…
4 min read -
Business
Regenerative farming is shifting from sustainability narrative to cost and supply-chain strategy
Europe's food sector is beginning to treat soil health as an economic asset rather than a compliance issue. The important shift is not simply greener farming, but a potential redesign of cost structures across…
4 min read -
Business
India is positioning itself as Norway’s next strategic partner in maritime decarbonisation
India's pitch to Norwegian investors is more than a routine diplomatic charm offensive. It is an attempt to bind foreign capital, maritime know-how and green technology into India's industrial growth model at a moment…
4 min read -
Business
Brussels is positioning India as a strategic economic counterweight for Europe
Europe is signalling that India is no longer just a large export market, but an increasingly important partner in its effort to diversify supply chains and reduce exposure to geopolitical shocks. What matters is…
4 min read -
Business
EU trims AI Act compliance burden while drawing a harder line on exploitative apps
The latest agreement shows the EU entering a more pragmatic phase of AI rulemaking. Rather than reopening the core bargain of the AI Act, lawmakers are trying to make the system easier to operate…
4 min read