Twenty-eight people, 22 of them children, were killed when a bus taking Belgian pupils back from a skiing holiday crashed in a Swiss tunnel, police said today.

IN the middle of a news blackout, who comes and who goes offers a vital clue as to what is going on for the myriad of intrepid reporters covering EU meetings.

Dexia said today its Belgian subsidiary will be bought by the state for €4bn as part of a restructuring of the bank amid a severe liquidity squeeze.

BELGIUM has warned France that it was not willing to foot the whole bill for rescuing Dexia as the two states started talks to divide up the Franco-Belgian lender’s assets.

A TAX on all financial transactions through banks and financial institutions, being pushed by France and Germany, will put Ireland in a difficult position politically and could have serious repercussions for the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

EUROZONE finance ministers held crisis talks yesterday in a desperate bid to come up with a solution to the Greek debt problem and avoid the euro debacle escalating to include Italy.

THE EU Treaties will be amended to allow member states to bail out one another, but it almost certainly won’t be put to a referendum in Ireland, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said.

EUROBONDS and increasing the €750 billion bailout fund moved a step closer to being realised following long discussions by finance ministers in Brussels, but both could take some time to become a reality.

THE country’s entire banking sector and the Government’s budget plans will be scrutinised by officials from the EU and the IMF when they arrive in Dublin this morning on what will be a historic day for the country.

DESPITE two years of restructuring and up to €50 billion of taxpayers’ money, there is growing consensus the country’s banking system is still in need of a complete overhaul.

PRIVATE equity and hedge funds will have access to all 27 EU countries with a single registration and be subject to EU-wide regulation following an agreement by finance ministers.

THE EU wants the Government to spell out in November the spending cuts and tax increases it will make over the next four years to reduce the massive 32% budget deficit caused by the bank bailout.

THE EU’s financial system is to have a comprehensive new supervision system in force from next January, aimed at preventing another financial crisis.

BELGIUM could be in for a long summer of negotiations before its new government is formed, following a potentially divisive election in which two parties of the right and left received the most votes.

More than 600 people have surrendered in China admitting their part in the Tibet anti-government riots, police said today.

The transfer of confidential banking records by a Belgium-based company to US authorities for use in anti-terrorism investigations breached EU data privacy rules, the premier said today.

FEARS that the dollar is heading for a crisis were raised yesterday as the euro broke through $1.27 for the first time.

THE new president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, chairs his first meeting of policy-makers this week.

A FRENCH magistrate plunged the future of Jean-Claude Trichet and the European Central Bank into disarray yesterday.

The birth of the euro tomorrow marks the completion of the most ambitious project in the history of the European Union.

The birth of the euro this week marks the completion of the most ambitious project in the history of the European Union.

Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders said the EU is still in a phase of economic growth.

European Union finance officials are stepping up efforts to sniff out suspicious insider trading before the attacks on the US.

At least 7,000 protestors have marched in Belgium as European Union finance ministers meet to discuss the economic fallout from the US terror attacks.