Just when you thought the European Union was down, it’s delivered a blow that shows you can’t count it out, writes Ian Wishart.

A funding scheme planned to give rise to €315bn worth of investment in the EU was officially launched yesterday — but amid mixed views on its effectiveness.

The three-pronged team of inspectors that presided over the bailouts of euro-area countries, including Greece and Ireland, should be scrapped and replaced with a European Union-based body, EU Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said yesterday.

Looking out from the top of the ECB’s new tower in Frankfurt, it’s easy to find dark clouds on the horizon. 

Mario Draghi could end the search for an asset worth buying if he would only turn to the euro area’s jointly issued crisis bonds.

The EU leaders have much to ponder as the crisis increases, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

EU finance ministers have reached political agreement on a final piece of the bloc’s planned banking union after more than a year of hard bargaining – the most ambitious step in integrating its economy since the adoption of the euro.

THE resignation of the top German official at the European Central Bank couldn’t have come at a worse time for eurozone policymakers as they search for a way out of the deepest crisis in the currency’s 12-year history.

EUROPEAN Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he is monitoring the Irish crisis on a daily basis, but officials say there has been no hint that Ireland is preparing to access the €750 billion bailout fund.

The European Union is finally closing in on new oversight rules to ensure sound finances, prevent another government debt crisis and restore the credibility of the euro.

IRELAND’S move to guarantee all bank deposits will be one of the issues discussed at today’s talks in Paris among the leaders of the EU’s major economies.

THE Government must not intervene to prevent house prices falling further to more sustainable levels and instead should have acted years ago to dampen house prices, according to a report form the Brussels-based think-tank, Bruegel.