European businesses and consumers expressed more optimism about the economy for the fifth month in a row in August, but their sentiments are still well below their average level from before the financial and economic ...

The European Commission on Friday approved Lufthansa's takeover of Austrian Airlines (AUA). But the EU executive said the German flag carrier must make several changes to resolve competition concerns. The company ...

The European Commission has called on libraries and museums to co-operate with high-tech firms such as Google to put more of Europe's heritage on line. Brussels "supports an approach that is open to private-sector ...

The EU has condemned the recent execution of two convicted drug traffickers in Thailand. The deaths "mark the end of a near six year-long de facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Thailand," the bloc stated ...

Diplomats from five EU countries - Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Britain - angered Cuba on Thursday when they went to the home of jailed dissident Darsi Ferrer to express concern about the case to his wife, ...

German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned Iran of new sanctions in case of unwillingness to cancel its nuclear programme. Speaking to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanjahu in Berlin, she also called on Israel to freeze its ...

Eight men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea cargo ship have been charged with hijacking and piracy, Russian prosecutors have said, according to BBC.The ship disappeared in July after leaving Finland with a crew of 15, ...

Bank credit to businesses in the eurozone shrank further last month despite current favorable conditions on the money markets, sparking fears over the true state of the economy in Europe. Loans to businesses and ...

Kosovo's leaders walked out of talks with the EU mission on Thursday, AFP reported. They reiterated their disapproval with the policing agreement that the EU mission reportedly reached with Serbia, stressing that they ...

Leading consumer groups have voiced disapproval over the full switch-over to new energy-efficient light bulbs, due to take place across the EU from next week. From Tuesday (1 September), 100-watt versions of classic, ...

A UK parliament act passed in 1984 to police the DVD and video games classification system, which has led to thousands of prosecutions, was never enforceable because the then government of Margaret Thatcher did not ...

EU leaders are to gather on 17 September for an extra summit to decide Europe's position ahead of global talks on financial reform, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushing for bank managers to freeze their bonuses ...

Brussels is finalising fresh proposals on European Union immigration policy, including a potentially controversial system of re-distributing refugees and asylum seekers among the 27 member states to lighten the workload ...

While the EU has praised Afghanistan for its conduct of last week's presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to the country's incumbent president, said the poll had been rigged in favour of Hamid ...

Hungary has asked the Swedish EU presidency to criticise the Slovak government's decision to prevent Hungarian president Laszlo Solyom from participating at an event commemorating Saint Stefan in the Slovak town of ...

Four years after it was created, Europe's top-level internet domain - .eu - has attracted over 3 million registrations, with applicants from Germany the most numerous. But the project has not managed to entirely avoid ...

A group of centre-right Czech senators has attacked a national law linked with the EU's Lisbon Treaty and plans to ask the country's constitutional court to suspend ratification until the legislation is changed. The ...

In a bid to use the momentum of the economic crisis which has strained EU public budgets, the European Commission has proposed a potentially controversial system to boost fight against tax fraud by allowing national ...

The eurozone's trade surplus doubled in June, boosting the mildly positive mood over the 16-strong bloc's economic performance. But analysts warn that recent positive signals are still too weak to suggest the beginning ...

One year after the global oil and food crises, which saw skyrocketing energy and food prices, the euro area is now reporting record low inflation as a result of the overall economic downturn. According to figures by ...

Pat Cox, the former president of the EU parliament, has dubbed "sweeping, false and entirely groundless," claims by Ireland's commissioner Charlie McCreevy that more countries would vote No to the Lisbon treaty if given ...

Arab states are lobbying the EU for support in forcing Israel to open up its secretive nuclear program to international inspection, according to documents quoted by AP. The effort includes a request to Swedish FM Bildt ...

The EU has moved to tighten its sanctions on Burma, extending an existing travel ban and overseas assets freeze on judges involved in sentencing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She was sentenced to 18 months in ...

Europe's two biggest economies - Germany and France - have stepped out of recession, seeing a mild GDP increase between the first and second quarter of this year, while the eurozone's broader economic decline has ...

Europe's industrial production fell in June after a mild improvement in May, making economists wonder if the long-awaited recovery is actually that close. The clearest drop has been recorded in the 16 states of the euro ...

The European Union has joined other nations in protesting against the prolonged house arrest of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling on Brussels to put forward new ...

The Palestinian Authority has recently received $255 million dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia and the EU, prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Monday. Europe's contribution was €39 million ($55 million). The EU so far in ...

Europe has lost 200,000 hectares of forest to fires this summer, more than in 2009, according to the EU commission. "During the next few days the fire danger will remain very high in many Mediterranean areas," Brussels ...

The International Monetary Fund and the European Commission agreed to loosen budget requirements for Romania. The lenders will allow Bucharest to aim for a budget deficit of 7.3% of this year's GDP, well above the 4.6% ...

The EU's main regulator has approved state aid to banks worth almost a third of the 27-member bloc's GDP - twice as much as predicted earlier, with the highest rescue funds in Ireland and with none paid out in several ...

A 91-year-old German ex-infantry commander Josef Scheungraber, accused of a Nazi war crime, is due to be sentenced by a court in Munich on Tuesday. He denies the claims by prosecutors that he had ordered the killing of ...

Twenty percent of the EU will be Muslim by 2050, according to a report published by the Telegraph on Sunday. The UK, Spain and Holland are expected to hit the mark faster. The study says that the current figure of 5% ...

Four formely opposition parties in Moldova announced on Saturday they have formed a new coalition following July's elections. The top priorities of the new "For European Integration" party will be fighting corruption, ...

Sweden's EU presidency has criticised Iran for putting on trial British and French embassy staff, saying that action against individual member states is viewed as action against all of Europe and "will be treated ...

Britain and Spain, the two major EU states hit the hardest by the economic crisis, have begun to show signs of recovery. Fresh figures on house prices, manufacturing output and the service sector have ended almost two ...

The European Commission has given a green light to Sweden's plan to extend its bank recapitalisation regime by an extra six months, until February 17. Brussels stated on Wednesday that the scheme is in line with EU ...

India will file a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over the EU's practice of letting big pharmaceutical firms use tough patent laws to have EU customs agencies impound generic drugs in transit to developing ...

The European Commission has extended the deadline for French farmers to pay back the state aid ruled illegal until September 29, while insisting on the penalty. "Please don't make the commission a scapegoat for a ...

The European Commission is due to hold a hearing on 7 September to assess Google's plan to publish millions of books online. Germany, Britain and France have complained about the firm's practice of scanning books from ...

Representatives of individual European states and the Swedish EU presidency will take part in the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad despite their concerns over Tehran's treatment of opposition ...

Poland wants to spend €10.9 billion on EU co-financed projects in 2010, the government said on Tuesday. The money should mainly go on improving poor roads. The cash injection should help boost the country's GDP, ...

Almost half of Europeans use the internet every day but one third - mainly the elderly, the unemployed or people in rural areas - have never used the web, according to a new European Commission report. The study, ...

The EU has urged Georgia and South Ossetia not to raise tensions around the rebel territory. The Swedish presidency said it "notes with concern the recent accusations of shellings and other incidents on both sides of ...

EU naval spokesman John Harbour has confirmed that Somali pirates released a German ship which had been held nearly four months after a ransom was paid, AP reported. He said EU forces had not yet boarded the vessel but ...

The EU has warned Niger against holding a referendum this week aimed at keeping president Mamadou Tandja - due to step down after two terms - in power. The Swedish EU presidency has warned that such a move would have " ...

French farmers have refused the government's call to pay back €330 million of state aid distributed to fruit and vegetable producers between 1992 to 2002 and later ruled illegal by the European Commission. "It's clear ...

The EU commission has agreed to give a conditional nod to Lufthansa to buy Austrian Airlines (AUA). "The draft decision will be submitted to the Advisory Committee of the Member States and a final proposal will be ...

China has launched formal complaints at the World Trade Organization against high EU import tariffs on Chinese screws. Beijing insists it is countering protectionism while Brussels argues the sanctions are justified by ...

Cuban president Raul Castro has warned the US and EU that he is not prepared to change the island's socialist system. "In response to Mrs Clinton, but also to the EU, I was not chosen as president to restore capitalism ...