EU leaders looked like they could not agree on who should be the bloc’s next foreign minister last night at a summit in Brussels.

Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on track to win a third term in this weekend’s election in Germany but faced a battle to preserve her centre-right majority and avert a potentially divisive coalition with her arch rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

NEAR a former Soviet naval base and dilapidated Cold War-era housing estate, this 84-year-old Latvian plywood factory is the kind of success story of which EU policymakers dream as they struggle with economic meltdown in southern Europe.

Estonia’s centre-right government is poised to stay in power for a second term after winning a clear parliamentary majority in the Baltic country’s first election as a eurozone member, preliminary results showed.

Estonia holds its first election as a eurozone member today, with the centre-right government hoping for an unprecedented second term for steering one of Europe’s most depressed economies back to growth.

The tiny Baltic state of Estonia is preparing to celebrate the New Year by becoming the first former Soviet republic to adopt the euro.

European nations rushed to criticise Russia’s decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s independence today.

Estonia’s prime minister today said any Russian boycott of Estonian goods was “doomed to fail” because many products originating in the Baltic country had a European Union label.

Estonian police detained more than 200 people overnight in the third day of unrest after the government's decision to remove a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn.

Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Estonia today for to discuss European Union finances with his Baltic counterparts.

A helicopter carrying two pilots and 12 passengers crashed and sank in the Baltic Sea off the Estonian coast today.