EU ambassadors in Brussels today failed to agree on plans to virtually double copyright protection to give musicians and performers copyright safeguards for 95 years instead of losing the rights to their own works after 50 years.

Credit rating agencies – partly blamed for the financial crisis – face tighter regulation under plans unveiled by the European Commission today.

The European Commission is considering the introduction of new laws which would ban banks from imposing "unacceptable" charges on customers moving money around the 12-nation euro-zone.