The EU wants to avoid Brexit turf wars by extending its oversight of financial services.

Financial Services Minister Eoghan Murphy has raised his “very serious concerns” about the behaviour of other EU countries over their bids to lure institutions from London after Brexit.

The chronic lack of housing supply in Ireland has been severely criticised by the European Commission.

Spain and Portugal have escaped EU fines despite repeated breaches of the bloc’s budget rules.

Italy said yesterday that it is “making progress” in protracted talks with Brussels over the best ways to inject much-needed money into its broken banks.

The IMF’s threat to pull out of bailouts for Greece unless European partners grant Athens massive debt relief poses a stark challenge to Germany, the biggest creditor, which insists on IMF involvement in any future rescue.

The Greek parliament has voted by a narrow majority to take the first steps towards a €86bn bailout (its third) by adopting a series of austerity measures.

A harsher austerity programme than any that has gone before for Greece will be studied by troika officials today before going to eurozone ministers tomorrow.

Greece and its creditors are starting to draft a technical-level agreement, a government official said yesterday, signalling progress in long-running talks to unlock aid for the cash-strapped country.

Britain should get an extra two years to reduce its budget deficit, despite its failure to comply with a five-year-old decision to cut its government spending deficit.

Frustrated finance ministers for the first time broke the taboo of talking about a “Plan B” for Greece at a fraught meeting in Riga.

Government debt in the eurozone has surged to the highest levels since the introduction of the single currency, underscoring the challenges still confronting the 19-nation bloc as it wrestles with Greece over new aid payments.

Greece is not moving fast enough to draw up and implement structural reforms and there is limited time to prevent it running out of cash, European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said yesterday.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan could have an extra €1.5bn to spend in this year’s budget, but he may have to overcome objections from the ECB and Germany first.

Pressure on Ireland to cut its deficit and debt will continue despite the country hitting its targets as prescribed by the European Commission.

The European Union has launched a drive to combat tax evasion following a series of probes into rules that allow multinationals to slash their bills in Luxembourg, Ireland and the Netherlands.

If quantitative easing becomes the responsibility of individual central banks then it will not be effective, according to the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

Russia will be the main focus of an extraordinary summit of EU leaders in Brussels today and is likely to play a role in who gets the Union’s top jobs for the coming five years.

It's official - Enda Kenny will not be running for a job in the EU.

Bailout exit a big boost to Kenny’s CV

Successive taoisigh have given over €38,000 worth of state gifts to foreign dignitaries over the past 10 years, including 52 pieces of Waterford Crystal, an Aran sweater and CDs.

Latvia’s prime minister has resigned after accepting responsibility for the collapse of a supermarket roof in the capital that killed 54 people and wounded at least 40 others.

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.

A Greek exit from the eurozone would damage confidence in the single currency bloc but not necessarily be fatal, Central Bank chief and European Central Bank policy-maker Patrick Honohan said at the weekend.

EVERYBODY will welcome as sensible that the incoming coalition government will have a minister responsible for heading up reform of how they do business.