The European Commission has stepped into the growing row over the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, Acta, as leading MEPs refuse to fast-track parliamentary approval due to bad faith in talks.

Germany has ruled out any extra contribution from national governments or the European Central Bank to the second Greek bail-out - as requested by the Greek government. Meanwhile, sources close to the negotiations speak of a €15bn funding gap.

As many as 33 projects in central and eastern Europe funded with €16bn out of EU's regional policy coffers are "environmentally harmful", a coalition of NGOs has said.

The Greek economy and its people are reaching the "limit" of what they can endure in terms of austerity cuts, a senior IMF official has said in unusually political remarks.

Cyprus is the least gay-friendly EU country followed by Italy, Latvia and Malta, according to NGO research, with EU institutions doing little to raise legal standards.