EU finance ministers Wednesday reached a banking union accord which will hand Brussels unprecedented new powers to prevent failing banks from wrecking the economy, official sources said.
Eurozone finance ministers said early Wednesday they had made progress on a new bank regulatory system, especially on the funding of a mechanism to close failing banks before they damage the economy.
Anti-Semitism has worsened in Europe in the past few years with abuse increasingly widespread on the Internet, a survey by the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed Friday.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday called for the end of divisions between Palestinians, in talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
European immigration and a row over US eavesdropping are set to dominate an EU leaders' summit beginning in Brussels, after a deadly shipwreck off Italy shocked the continent.
The second round of scheduled talks between top European Union and American officials to clinch the world's largest trade deal have been cancelled because of the US government shutdown.
The International Monetary Fund approved Friday a standby loan of nearly two billion euros ($2.7 billion) to match a backup loan of the same size requested from the EU.
Britain on Wednesday gave an extra $160 million to help Syrian refugees as the European Union urged the UN Security Council to do more to ensure humanitarian access.
Congratulations poured in from France and Angela Merkel's other European partners on Sunday after the German chancellor clinched her third term in a convincing election victory.
Prime Minister David Cameron will push the EU to curb migrants' access to British welfare payments during talks ahead of the country's membership referendum.
EU foreign ministers gather Friday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius seeking a joint position on Syria as France stands alone in the 28-nation bloc in favour of military intervention.
Egypt's hardline military leader pledged a "forceful" response to violence rocking the country, as top EU officials prepared Monday to hold emergency talks on the crisis that has claimed nearly 800 lives in five days.