EU leaders agreed to maintain open borders, while discouraging all non-essential travel, amid fears over the spread of dangerous new coronavirus variants.

The EU is coaxing US president Joe Biden to open up to Cuba amid its worst economic crisis in decades, but foreign money risks feeding the regime's "feared" rule.

Last year's German EU presidency refused corporate sponsorships. But the new Portuguese presidency has decided they are needed and has signed three contracts. One of them is with one of Europe's largest paper companies, The Navigator Company.

The Belgian and Bulgarian prosecutors who were appointed had also not been the experts' first choice. Belgian prosecutor Jean-Michel Verelst has challenged the council's decision at the European Court of Justice.

The UK has raised eyebrows in the EU and at home over its reluctance to give full diplomatic privileges to João Vale de Almeida, the EU's ambassador to the UK.

"Banknotes are still to stay," European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said at a recent conference, "but I think we will have a digital euro."