EU economic forecasts out next WEEK

The commission figures will underpin its country-specific financial recommendations due at the end of May.

Earlier in the week on Monday, the commission's "task force" on Greece - a group of 50-or-so experts based in Brussels and Athens, advising the Greek government how to get their country back on its feet - will file their quarterly report.

On Thursday, commission officials will meet with business leaders and trade union representatives - "social partners" - to get feedback on policy from the real world.

Officials in the European External Action Service will on Monday hold a meeting with private security firms to try to fix a mess on who is to guard diplomats in Kabul.

In what amounts to a quiet week in the EU capital, EU officials are on holiday on 1 May, Labour Day.

MEPs are away all week, catching up with domestic constituents.

Outside Brussels, the Icelandic government, newly-elected over the weekend, will be expected to make clear whether the island state still plans to join the Union.

EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is making her first-ever visit trip to Mongolia on Monday to sign an association-type treaty.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will the same day brave potential anti-austerity protests on a visit to Granada, one of Spain's worst-hit regions in terms of unemployment.

Meanwhile, EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele goes to Baku on Thursday.

The authoritarian country is gearing up for presidential elections in October. The EU wants its gas as an alternative to Russian supplies. But some commissioners have in the past complained about its human rights record despite energy interests.