European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has initiated an investigation into the lack of transparency around EU ministerial decisions on annual fish quotas.

EUROPEAN finance ministers have been warned confidentially of the danger of a renewed credit crunch as a “systemic” crisis in eurozone sovereign debt spills over to banks.

FUTURE budgets will be drawn up with the help of a fiscal council of independent experts while the Department of Finance will obliged by law to work towards balancing the country’s income and expenditure.