He called it "by far the biggest mistake I have committed in my entire career".

The Government has rejected claims that it was responsible for keeping unionists in the dark on a special Brexit deal to prevent a hard border.

Deep divisions within Europe are increasingly threatening the values upon which the European project of “ever closer union” is based.

Theresa May has issued a direct plea to EU leaders to clear the way for a Brexit deal which she can sell to British voters.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promoted his pro-European views in a series of meetings with leaders of The Netherlands, Spain and Estonia in Paris, with Brexit negotiations due to start next week.

HAD Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam, anti-European Union Freedom party been more successful the result would have been a depressing affirmation that the election of Donald Trump and Brexit are part of a pattern casting a shadow over the liberal, stable and prosperous Europe of the last 70 years.

US stocks held steady on Wall Street and bond prices gave back some of their big gains from Wednesday as a rally fuelled by the Federal Reserve's announcement on interest rates faded.

Here's your morning bulletin.

The Netherlands election has energised traditional parties across Europe from left and right, with Dutch voters showing Europe that populism is not always inevitable, suggest Raf Casert and Angela Charlton. 

People in the Netherlands are voting today in the country's general election.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed the Netherlands in its diplomatic fight with Turkey as Nato's chief called for alliance members to respect each other and the European Union urged Turkey to calm down.

UPDATE 1pm: Protestors have clashed with riot police after authorities in the Netherlands cancelled a planned rally in support of Turkey’s President.

A major row has broken out between Turkey and the Netherlands.

Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant has an agenda that goes way beyond allowing users share a few pictures. Leonid Bershidsky explains why we should be worried.

Brexit, the Donald Trump presidency and a rise in isolated terrorist attacks were some of the shocks that investors faced in 2016, writes Ryan McGrath.

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new”

The EU plan to deal with migrants is a masterpiece that seeks to bridge the largely domestic fears of intransigent politicians in the EU and Turkey, writes Ann Cahill Europe Correspondent

Uncertainty over the UK’s status in the EU continued to ripple through markets and unsettled businesses in the countdown to today’s two-day summit of European leaders, as German chancellor Angela Merkel threw her political muscle behind the push for a deal to keep Britain in.

We bring you a brief look at some of the other news from the European Union from the past week in our Brussels Briefing.

The latest save-the-euro summit turned into open season on Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

Frustrated eurozone leaders have given Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras a last-minute chance to come up with a viable proposal on how to save his country from financial ruin.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras was met with anger at a summit of eurozone leaders after it became clear he had no written proposals on how to save his country from financial ruin.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte says he supports moves to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for shooting down a Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine last year.

Indonesia has executed six people, five of them foreigners, for drug trafficking despite international appeals to spare them.

Relatives of MH17 crash victims, angered by what they see as Dutch mishandling of inquiries into the disaster, want a special UN envoy to launch an international investigation.

Children have silently placed flowers next to 298 candles – one for each victim of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash – at a sombre Dutch commemoration of the air disaster.

Those responsible for shooting down the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine will face judgment, Australia’s prime minister said.

The Netherlands’ prime minister has called a halt to the search for remains of victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster in Ukraine, saying it is too dangerous to continue.

The Dutch public stood and applauded respectfully yesterday as they watched 40 hearses carrying the coffins of those who died in the doomed Malaysia Airlines MH17 pass by.

Bodies of the dead from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane have arrived in Holland to be received by a nation in mourning.

Black box flight recorders from the downed Air Malaysian plane have arrived for analysis by UK crash investigators.

The king and queen of the Netherlands will lead mourners as the first victims of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 disaster are repatriated from the Ukraine today.

Bowing to international pressure, pro-Moscow separatists released a train packed with bodies and handed over the black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane.

A distraught mother had summed up the mood of anguish in the Netherlands at faltering efforts to repatriate the bodies of loved ones killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, appealing to Russian president Vladimir Putin to return the bodies of her son and his girlfriend.

A refrigerated train bearing the bodies of many of the 298 people killed in the Malaysia Airlines plane disaster has pulled away from a rebel-held town in eastern Ukraine.

Another 21 bodies have been found in the sprawling fields of east Ukraine where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed last week, killing all 298 people on board.

An urgent United Nations Security Council vote could take place as early as tonight on a resolution demanding international access to the Ukraine plane crash site.

An angry Dutch prime minister says he has had an “extremely intense” telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin in which he urged him to “show the world he intends to help” in the investigation into the Ukraine air disaster.

Schiphol Airport is the wrong place to be for family and friends of those who died on Malaysian flight MH17.

Hundreds of people are feared dead after a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was apparently shot down over eastern Ukraine.

Fashion fracas

British PM David Cameron will get backing from his Swedish counterpart, Fredrik Reinfeldt, today as he urges German Chancellor Angela Merkel to drop her support for Jean-Claude Juncker as the next head of the European Commission.