IRISH troops in Chad will swap their EU hats for blue UN berets when the UN takes over from the EU’s peacekeeping mission there next March, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea has said.

AUDITORS reporting on the EU’s accounts for its €114 billion budget warned they are unhappy about €7bn paid out for rural development and to help poorer regions.

EU leaders agreed a set of principles they will put to next week’s summit of the world’s richest and emerging economies on restructuring the global financial system.

IRELAND’S electricity network could be linked directly to France or Spain as an alternative to having another interconnector with Britain.

FROM tomorrow what you see must be what you pay when it comes to airline tickets.

IRELAND could be given three or more years to get its budget overshoot down to 3% when the European Commission evaluates the country’s economy on Monday.

AN EU recovery plan including measures to cushion the impact of the economic downturn on the real economy, and especially on jobs, is being drawn up by the European Commission.

THE European Parliament gets a very mixed press, some of it warranted, some of it not.

IRELAND will link into an EU-wide network designed to tackle child pornography on the internet and other cyber crime.

EUROPE’S new trade commissioner to replace Peter Mandelson has been approved by the European Parliament, but she may not be farmer-friendly.