All children born in Germany will be automatically granted citizenship at birth, provided at least one parent was born in Germany, or arrived before the age of 14 and has a residence permit.

ECONOMIST: Germany

Last week a foreign student in Cambridge showed me his residence permit for the UK, the bit of plastic, plus biometric chip, that was to be the prototype for the ID cards that everyone was threatened with - but is now issued only to visa holders.

BBC: A Point of View: The euro's strange stories