EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has threatened to take the Government to court over the preferential treatment they give to the Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI).

AN POST can keep its government contract to distribute more than €7 billion a year in social welfare payments, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

A CAMPAIGN to cut the rate of VAT on condoms has been launched on Facebook by members of the European Parliament ahead of World Aids day next month.

MINISTERS have spoken in Irish 22 times at EU meetings since the language became an official one last January, while MEPs have used it about twice as often.

THE employers’ organisation IBEC says it hopes the Government will not simply follow the British in extending its ban on Romanian and Bulgarian workers next year.

THE Government can give State funds to Shannon to help start up new routes from the airport, according to the European Commission.

THE Government will be forced to clean up abandoned landfill sites around the country that are leaking into the groundwater and polluting it or face massive fines following a ruling from the European Court of Justice.

AN EU survey has found the Irish are the least likely to be paid untaxed, under-the-counter wages but more Irish than any other nationality refused to answer if they were working in the black economy.

ALL Irish recipients who benefit from EU farm subsidies will be publicly named, for the first time, next year.

PESTICIDES used on food should be halved in the coming decade thanks to new controls being votedon by the European Parliament.