EU news monthly: February 2026
India and the European Union have signed a free trade agreement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called it the “mother of all deals”. The agreement, the largest ever signed by the two sides, comes after nearly two decades of stalled negotiations and at a time when both India and the EU are seeking to reduce their dependence on volatile relations with the United States.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 0.3% in the EU, compared with the previous quarter. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 1.4% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2025.
On 1 January 2026, 22 out of 27 EU countries had national minimum wages, all except Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
The Czech group CSG has successfully entered the stock market. Shares of the arms group Czechoslovak Group rose by more than 30% upon its listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the Prague Stock Exchange’s unregulated market segment.
Author
Erste Bank Research Team
Erste Bank
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