European Union leaders will create a strategic investment fund that could generate up to €315bn in private and public-sector money to upgrade infrastructure, jump-start sluggish economies and ignite job growth.

If ever we needed an example of the devious and twisted logic that permeates the European Union, we got it over the weekend from Lithuainian president, Dalia Grybauskaite.

EU leaders sent a clear message to Russia to step back from the brink of war in Ukraine when they unanimously agreed to make Poland’s prime minister their chief.

European Union leaders have stopped short of imposing immediate new sanctions against Moscow, despite tough rhetoric condemning Russia’s increasing military involvement in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has been warned that he is “practically in a state of war with Europe” as EU leaders mull tougher sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Ukraine’s government says it is drawing up plans to withdraw its troops from Crimea, where Russia is steadily taking formal control as its armed forces seize military installations across the peninsula.

EU leaders pressed Russia to start discussions with Ukraine within the next few days about withdrawing from Crimea or face asset freezes and visa bans.

Two high-ranking Lithuanian diplomats have been fired after criticising the president in telephone conversations that were secretly recorded and leaked on YouTube.

A Moscow court has convicted dead Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky of tax evasion, provoking outrage over the posthumous prosecution of a man whose death in pre-trial detention led to a major diplomatic row with Washington.

Emily O’Reilly eyes up EU ombudsman role

Lithuanians exasperated with economic hardship have handed a stunning victory to a populist party led by a disgraced Russian-born millionaire, nearly complete results of yesterday’s election show.

FORMER European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy shot into the spotlight across Europe because he and 16 of his former colleagues were still being paid by Brussels even though they are in new jobs.

The CIA set up secret prisons in Lithuania to hold suspects in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a Lithuanian government inquiry said today.

The European Union’s budget chief will become Lithuania’s first woman president after a landslide victory in an election overshadowed by the Baltic country’s ailing economy.

European Union budget chief Dalia Grybauskaite was the strong favourite to win Lithuania’s presidential election as crisis-weary voters went to the polls today.

AS early as 2004, before she became EU Commissioner for financial programming and the budget, Dalia Grybauskaite said agriculture spending was the EU’s central budget problem.

THE Government’s suspension of the farm retirement-and-installation scheme may be the tip of an iceberg.

The European Union should reduce its agriculture spending that accounts for 40% of the €129 billion budget and focus instead on forward looking areas such as climate change, energy and job creation, the European Commission’s budget chief has said.

THE EU’s €134 billion budget for next year will shift the focus away from agriculture towards investment in research, the environment and energy.

IRELAND received €979 million net from the EU last year, far in excess per head of population than many less wealthy member states.

THE European Union’s budget will be €29 billion bigger than everyone thought when it was agreed at a summit hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last December, it was claimed yesterday.

The European Union edged closer to a seven-year budget after negotiators backed down from demanding an €11.4bn increase, breaking a four-month deadlock.

EU Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite slammed Britain’s defence of its EU rebate today, saying London was using “creative accounting” in its arguments to keep the multi-billion-euro payback.