Germany has announced its plan to ban use of glyphosate by year 2023 and the use will be limited before the ban will be implemented.

According to German publication Automobilwoche, Volkswagen Group Components (VWGC) has efforts underway to electrify vintage cars.

German charging network Allego has opened a special high-power charging (HPC) station at the Ettenhuber GmbH site in Feldkirchen, Munich.

Wiesbaden, Germany - German breweries sold less beer than ever in the first quarter of 2009 as the recession and a smoking ban in bars took its toll, according to figures released Thursday.

The Federal Statistics Office said sales of the amber liquid were down 6.8 per cent from a year ago to 20.7 million hectolitres, the lowest amount since records were first kept in 1993.

Some 86.3 per cent of the beer produced in Germany is for domestic consumption. Exports to Germany's neighbours in the European Union slumped 12.5 per cent to 2.2 million hectolitres.

Cologne, Germany - European telephones giant Deutsche Telekom is to summon shareholders this year to vote through a major reorganization that will fold its T-Mobile wireless business back into the main company, Telekom said Thursday in Cologne.

At a shareholder meeting in Cologne, chief executive Rene Obermann said executive responsibilities would be re-allocated, but the move did not mean any job losses in the company's German home market. Obermann said he was concentrating on "modernizing" the company.

Berlin - The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to face growing pressure for further rate cuts after data released Thursday showed unemployment in the
16-member eurozone rising and inflation remaining at low levels.

While the European Union's statistics office said in a preliminary report that inflation in the eurozone came in at 0.6 per cent in April, it also released data showing unemployment ticking up to 8.9 per cent in March as the global recession hits the currency bloc's

labour market.