Go to the Content Saturday, 5 July 2008
Iranian media says Tehran is willing to upgrade discussions with the EU about its nuclear programme.
European Commission set to transfer money earmarked to help EU farmers into a fund to support agriculture in the developing world.
Parliamentary vote makes Cyprus the twentieth state to back the EU's reform treaty.
Boosted by concerns about climate change, support now almost matches opposition.
Hike by the European Central Bank is the first in a year.
Development commissioner backs French suggestion that countries in the developing world form regional agricultural trading blocs.
Charges could be applied for damage to roads, pollution, noise and traffic congestion.
Meeting could rewrite negotiating mandate; trade commissioner says he is being undermined.
Trade restrictions are among the options being considered.
Pharmaceutical companies have been accused of keeping generic drugs out of the market.
French immigration minister defends plan; no immigration contracts in watered-down pact.
Aid organisations say that EU member states are not honouring their G8 promises.
France claims court ban of AKP would not affect policy; officials say ban would reaffirm Sarkozy's stance.
Ministers to support reform of standards body, but IASB to take flak for banks' liquidity crisis.
Experts seek evidence of discrimination; mission could lead to fresh WTO probe.
Trade unions fear rising unemployment; France wants to seal a deal in October.
European Commission sets out plans to improve patients' access to operations and treatments in other European countries.
Anti-discrimination legislation proposed by the European Commission expands into previously uncovered areas.
European Commission's initial doubts about phone-maker's plans dispelled by a review of the market.
European Commission rules that Athens' repeated aid to Hellenic Shipyards breached EU regulations.
Nicolas Sarkozy lists “institutional crisis” as key concern of France's EU presidency, together with immigration, climate change and defence.
French presidential office again links enlargement to adoption of the EU's reform treaty.
More analysis
Sign up for news alertsA new exchange scheme could help students to decide if they are ready to start their own businesses.
The EU's in-house bank has reinvented itself, taking an innovative approach to lending.
3 July: Informal meeting of environment and energy ministers, Paris. On the agenda: energy and climate change package, GMOs.
3 July: High-level conference on ‘who will feed the world?' organised by the French presidency, the Commission and the Parliament, Brussels.
7-8 July: Informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers, Cannes. On the agenda: a European pact on asylum and migration, child protection, civil protection, mutual recognition of judgements.
7-8 July: G8 heads of state and government meet, Toyako, Japan. On the agenda: high commodity prices, climate change, Iran, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Millennium Development Goals.
7-9 July: European Parliament plenary session, Strasbourg. On the agenda: food additives, health and safety at work, social security, China.
8 July: Finance ministers meet, Brussels. On the agenda: high fuel prices, financial crisis roadmap, IASB reforms (accounting).
8 July: Weekly Commission meeting, Strasbourg. On the agenda: green transport package, European transparency initiative, publication of details on beneficiaries of EU funds, anti-trust decision, free fruit for schools.
9 July: European Court of First Instance to rule on Osram v Council of Ministers. Case concerns the application of EU anti-dumping law.
The G8 set themselves goals in 2005 that they have failed to deliver on. They are now threatening, it seems, not even to make promises.
The emissions-trading scheme is supposed to be a breakthrough in the EU's efforts to curb climate change. The danger is that it will cause Poland's economy to break down.
Slovenia has kept the EU show on the road, and that is no mean achievement.
The French president's criticism of established institutions leaves him looking powerless.
How to lose friends and alienate people.
Russia's entrepreneurs want greater pluralism, decentralisation and more media freedom.
MEPs should think twice before supporting Viviane Reding's plan to break up former telecom monopolies throughout the EU.
A row over who should get the contract to build US air-tankers is about much more than money and jobs.
Press officers: the secret weapon for success in the European Parliament.
Inviting Slobodan Miloševic's party to join the Serbian government was unavoidable; the dangers it poses may be avoidable.
We should pay more attention to the US president's departure in part because of what will remain absolutely the same.
Since the fall of Franco, Spain has accepted football as a sport of beauty, not a battle.
NATO and the EU – two organisations facing a crisis of identity, two organisations that need to convince Europeans they are part of the solution in a global world.
Analysis
The European Central Bank should be handed a leading role in cross-border banking supervision to foster stability in the financial system.
Although the International Criminal Court has had some success in its ten years of existence, its powers are still inadequate.
The only way to bring China on board in the battle against climate change is for the EU and US to team up.
The European commissioner for the information society is ready to make enemies in her quest for lower mobile-phone costs.
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Sarko's speechwriter.
Neo-fascist, convicted revolutionary, MEP and justice watchdog.
Surely six months of francophony can't harm a hack?
Giuseppe Bova, you knew him well.
A little conundrum for trademark lawyers.
The commissioner for employment is launching a series of bold measures aimed at bolstering the rights of European workers and fighting discrimination.
The European Parliament has acquired new powers by accident as well as by design, according to its former secretary-general.
Analysis
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