FRANCE often gets bad press worldwide, being hammered by the US for its political decisions and Britain for its economic ones.

AFTER the euphoria of the Eurofest and Berlin declaration to celebrate the EU’s 50th anniversary at the weekend, it’s back to real politics for member states and their political leaders.

THE first anniversary of the UN Human Rights Council is approaching, but rather than celebrating the successor to the discredited Human Rights Commission, the new body is to be heavily criticised by the European Parliament.

TWO years ago nobody would have predicted that Europe’s leaders would agree on anything to do with energy. Now it is being welcomed as a new industrial revolution and the heads of the 27 member states will later today agree to a major policy outline.

IRISH is now a fully-fledged EU working language, and European Union institutions are rapidly building up a complement of qualified people to interpret the spoken word and translate the written.

FATAL accidents at work could be cut by a quarter inside five years under a strategy unveiled by the EU.

EXPENSIVE new technology — and not an ageing population — is the greatest threat to countries being able to afford decent health services, according to a major new report.

THE future health of Ireland’s public finances is at risk because of the costs of looking after an ageing population and slowdown in housing, a European Commission report has warned.

SHOPPERS are being ripped off by excessive bank charges for credit and debit cards and even cash customers end up paying more for goods as a result, according to a major report.

WHAT Germany describes as its “particular historic responsibility” influences many of its policies as it continues to acknowledge its crime in exterminating six million Jews in World War II.