The European Union and US are to impose new economic sanctions against Russia following the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which has been blamed on Moscow-backed rebels in Ukraine.

A major battle has kicked off in the EU over just how austere budgets should be in the future with Ireland in a minority in the European People’s Party looking for much greater flexibility.

The leaders of the 28 EU countries took a few hours off bickering over who should lead the European Commission to remember the day, 100 years ago, when the First World War began, taking 16m lives in just four years.

David Cameron has had a "full and frank discussion" with the president of the European Council ahead of an expected clash at a Brussels summit over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker to the EU’s top job.

The British Prime Minister will meet European Council president Herman van Rompuy on Monday as he mounts a rearguard action to block the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as the new head of the European Commission.

European Union leaders will today sign a trade deal with Ukraine designed to give economic support to the beleaguered state in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Flying into a storm at Belgian airports

John Healy may well be right when he says that Barosso, Van Rompuy and co. were “incandescent and exasperated” when omitted from “Paddy’s bailout exit party” (Letters, Dec 28).

The Kremlin gave gifts to heads of state at a G20 meeting in St Petersburg that were actually bugging devices, it has been reported.

Tax dodging causes the EU to lose around €1 trillion of income each year, the president of the European Council said yesterday as he announced that EU leaders would discuss the issue at a summit next month.

Cyprus’s decision to force losses on bank deposits doesn’t set a precedent for the rest of the euro region, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said in an interview with De Zondag.

The long EU push for austerity could be slowing down as EU leaders meet this evening for their two-day summit which is being billed as an ‘austerity versus growth’ event.

Leaders settled in for a long night of negotiations on the €1,000bn seven-year EU budget last night, but the early signs suggested that Ireland’s share of agriculture payments was safe.

Ireland is battling to ensure as big a slice of EU funds as possible as EU leaders gather in Brussels to finalise a seven-year budget of close to €1,000bn.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted a deal must be struck this week for the EU’s seven-year budget.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today represent Ireland at a meeting of Europe’s four presidents to negotiate the EU budget.

IT WAS the moment people across Ireland recoiled in horror as they realised the muck they had been fed after it emerged 99% of the Coalition’s programme for government contained horse manure.

Irish hopes of securing a crucial bank debt deal were boosted by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy — though he admitted he had no influence over the matter.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has said yesterday's successful debt auction is another sign that confidence is back in Ireland.

European Union leaders are pledging to create a body with the authority to restructure or close down banks in trouble and to give Greece desperately needed bailout funds.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy's expressed hope that the Union's 27 leaders can tonight add to a good week, that began with picking up the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize came with a warning — take care EU, if you want to survive.

The European Union's three presidents collected the Nobel Peace Prize today in recognition of six decades of work promoting "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".

“Not this prize, not this year” is the message from the protesters on the streets of Oslo with their torches, objecting to the EU receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ireland won a small victory in its fight to retain as much as possible of it’s €1.6 billion a year from the EU’s common agriculture fund as negotiations on the Union’s seven-year €1 trillion budget got underway.

Indecision in Brussels threatened the euro, and shook the global economy.

David Cameron will not accept a cut in Britain’s rebate from Brussels as he tries to secure a freeze in the European Union budget, Downing Street said today.

Industry leaders in the Irish agri-food sector are in unanimous agreement on the need to resist proposed cuts to the EU’s agriculture budget.

Eurozone countries will be asked by the European Parliament to nominate a new member of the European Central Bank executive board — and ensure the candidate is female.

Merkel and Hollande wrangle on

SOME 40 MPs in Zimbabwe have undergone a mass circumcision — please insert your own joke here about Coalition TDs already being castrated.

Financial markets rose today after European Union leaders threw a lifeline to the eurozone’s tottering banks.

EU leaders and their economic experts were working late into the night to come up with some confidence-building measures to help Spain and Italy, now in danger of being shut out of the markets.

AN imagined conversion between Enda Kenny and Angela Merkel on the fringes of the EU summit this weekend….

A Franco-German clash over eurozone recovery tactics has ruled out a defining deal to solve the growing economic crisis at the latest EU summit in Brussels.

A top EU official wants powers to force eurozone countries to change their national budgets as part of a grand vision to save the currency.

The document eurozone members are hoping will save the euro promises to be long on big plans and short on immediate measures that would halt the continuing crisis now threatening the global economy.

The President of the European Union Herman Van Rompuy has today called for a "no taboos" debate on how to boost growth and create jobs.

British Prime Minister David Cameron tonight bitterly complained that he was being ignored at an EU summit on jobs and growth.

European Union leaders are appointing former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy to a second term as president of the European Council - the gathering of 27 EU heads of government.

The leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro have delayed a decision on whether to give their bailout funds more firepower until later in March, European officials said today.

Herman Van Rompuy is likely to be reappointed president of the European Council at a European Union summit next week, an EU official said today.

China will continue to invest in eurozone government debt and it remains confident in the euro, the country’s central bank governor said yesterday, while calling on Europeans to produce more attractive investment products for China.

China is ready to help resolve Europe’s debt crisis, its premier said yesterday, but he gave no details a day after the nation’s sovereign wealth fund ducked calls by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for it to buy euro government bonds.