Today's essential intelligence covering international developments and European affairs. Greying Balance Sheets
London ordered a fast-track review of the state-pension age, now 66 but scheduled to hit 68 by 2046, as Treasury modelling shows the over-65 cohort will swell from 19 % of the UK population today to 25 % by 2035 (ONS, FT). Berlin’s Border Gambit
Germany will keep the extra passport checks on its Polish and Czech frontiers only “so lange wie nötig” (“as long as needed”), Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in Białowieża yesterday.