News archive

Low turnout invalidates Romania impeachment vote
Romania's centre-right president Traian Basescu survives an impeachment referendum as too few people turn out to vote to make the result valid

Arms trade treaty talks end without deal
A United Nations conference aimed at creating a global, binding treaty to regulate the arms trade has ended without a final treaty being agreed

Bond-buying Eurozone bail-out fund would soon run out of money
Neither the eurozone bail-out fund nor the IMF has the necessary €2 trillion firewall to pull Europe out of the economic doldrums - writes Fredrik Erixon

Van Rompuy tops Twitter diplomacy rankings
President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy is the best connected world leader on Twitter, according to a new study by public relations firm Burson-Marsteller

Italy downgraded amid continuing eurozone fears
Italy's credit rating has been downgraded by the Egan-Jones agency as speculation continues that Spain will need a full bail-out and Greece will be forced out of the eurozone

Anglo-French agreement on military drones
Defence ministers from the United Kingdom and France agree to increase cooperation on unmanned aerial vehicles, following a bilateral meeting in London

Lambrinidis appointed EU's first human rights envoy
Former Greek foreign minister Stavros Lambrinidis has been chosen as the European Union's first special representative for human rights

EU proposes criminal sanctions for bank rate rigging
The European Commission has described the manipulation of inter-bank lending rates such as Libor as "a scam" and announced plans for criminal sanctions to prevent a repeat of the scandal

Growth of private sector changing face of security
Governments must be careful to avoid the pitfalls of contracting out security to private firms that have grown spectacularly since the Cold War, a study says

Germany's top credit rating under threat
Moody's says the top notch credit ratings of three eurozone countries are under threat as a result of the rising possibility of Greece leaving the currency bloc and the potential that Spain and Italy will require further aid

Markets and euro hit as crisis deepens
Growing fears that Spain will need a full sovereign bail-out, and renewed doubts about Greece's ability to meet the conditions imposed by international lenders, spook markets as eurozone debt continues to rise

Spain downgraded just after receiving bail-out confirmation
On the day Spain received formal confirmation from eurozone ministers of its €100bn bank bail-out to a backdrop of street protests, the country is downgraded by US ratings agency to just two notches above default

Terrorist attack in Bulgaria could be escalation of 'dirty war'
EU leaders express shock at the suspected terrorist attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, which resulted in the death of at least seven people and another 30 being injured

Microsoft facing 'severe' punishment for EU antitrust breach
European officials could slap a large fine on American software giant for its alleged failure to offer customers alternative browsers to Internet Explorer, despite the firm claiming it had offered the choice

Heightened tensions on the rock of Gibraltar
As the temperature rises between Gibraltar and Spain, Brussels may no longer be able to afford the luxury of brushing the rock's problems under the carpet. Justin Stares talks to Gibraltar's MEP Sir Graham Watson about the thorny sovereignty issues