An EU flag flutters inside the European Union headquarters in Brussels. Brussels: It’s been a stormy year for the European single currency, and there are very real fears that the sovereign debt crises that hit Greece and Ireland could engulf other eurozone countries. The EU has been under fire for its response to the crisis and for not doing enough to prevent a fresh set of bailouts. No one could... 

The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas but includes Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim festivities. More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a “sought after” Christmas... 

Europe’s willingness to take directions from other world powers is “pitiful” and “pathetic” China’s top man in Brussels has said. The remarks by Chinese ambassador Song Zhe come as a leaked US diplomatic cable revealed that Washington quickly swung into action earlier this year when the Spanish EU presidency suggested the Union should lift its arms embargo with... 

A group of former European leaders have called for tough sanctions against Israel in response to Tel Aviv’s failure to stop settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land. Criticizing the European Union’s existing policy toward Israel, in a letter sent to European governments and EU institutions on Monday, former heads of states, ministers and heads of European organizations said Israel... 

As America has been moving left, Europe is taking the opposite course. Social-Democratic parties have lost some of their dominance. These two maps plot political power. For countries with coalition governments, the holder of the Prime Minister or being the largest party in the coalition is used. Purple is where the Prime Minister and President are from different blocks (for countries where the President... 

Europe's far right say Turkey could bring down the EU Since 2005, Turkey has been in membership talks with the European Union – with little success. Far-right parties now say the country poses a threat to EU identity and are planning a referendum to block Turkey’s EU bid. Several far-right European parties have vowed to seek a Europe-wide referendum on Turkey’s accession to the... 

European politicians and journalists visiting Iceland in recent months have been quite astonished to experience first hand how little interest Icelandic MPs and Icelanders in general have in joining the European Union. So astonished in fact that Icelandic lawmakers have repeatedly been asked if the EU application delivered by the Icelandic government in 2009 is really serious. Well, quite frankly... 

The European Union’s antitrust regulators said Monday they have launched two formal investigations into IBM for alleged antitrust abuses in the mainframe computer market. In a news release, the European Commission said it is investigating allegations by software competitors T3 and Turbo Hercules that IBM tied its mainframe operating system to sales of its mainframe hardware. By doing so, the companies... 

The European Union (EU) on Monday adopted a new round of sanctions against Iran that, if implemented, will have serious implications not only for the EU as the Islamic Republic’s largest trading partner, but also for its energy security. The new European sanctions target Iranian shipping and air cargo companies, impose visa bans on officials and freeze assets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary... 

Luc Everaert The International Monetary Fund this morning released its latest review of the eurozone economy, a collection of 16 countries that, judging from the report’s conclusions, are becoming the continent’s new Brothers Grimm. Growth is slow — and at risk of getting slower because bank credit has dried up. The banks themselves are undercapitalized and far too dependent on government... 

Pro-Palestinian activists are launching a new round of anti-Israel lawsuits in European courts. The lawsuits, which exploit the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, are being used to harass current and former Israeli political and military leaders, with the twin aims of tying Israel’s hands against Palestinian terror and delegitimizing the Jewish state. On June 23, two Belgian lawyers... 

Bart De Wever The frontrunner in Belgium’s elections this weekend is running on perhaps the ultimate in divisive proposals: the breakup of the nation. Despite its status as the home of the European Union, Belgium itself has long struggled with divisions between its 6 million Dutch-speakers and 4.5 million Francophones but until recently talk of a breakup has been limited to extremists. Now, Bart... 

Eurozone’s unemployment figure continues to linger as around 16 million Euro currency users are still out of work, official data shows. Unemployment across the 16 countries which share the Euro stuck at a record 10 percent in May for the third month running, European Union data showed on Friday. The area’s unemployment rate has remained at its highest level since the creation of Euro in... 

The European Union should push world powers to bring in a global levy on banks to “make those who caused the crisis pay,”Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. EU leaders are keen not to repeat the experience of the last two years, when they had to bail out banks with public funds to prevent the financial crisis from worsening. The intervention left them with huge deficits,... 

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England Monday, June, 7, 2010. Cameron said the pain of cutting Britain's national deficit will be worse than previously feared and will affect everyone in the country. Laying out the reasons for squeezing spending, Cameron said the nation cannot avoid cutting a deficit which rose to 156 billion pounds ($225...