Data published on Monday confirmed recession in the eurozone's weakest economies last year, breathing new life into a heated debate on whether aggressive austerity measures may come at the cost of economic growth.
French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen called for a "New Deal" on immigration and slammed the emergence of a "Soviet European Union" during a fiery speech at Britain's Cambridge University on Tuesday.
Britain, apparently backed by a handful of European Union allies, is fighting to lift an EU arms embargo barring the supply of weapons to the Syrian rebel coalition battling President Bashar al-Assad.
Greece will pay back the billions of euros of European aid it has received to fight its debt crisis, the head of the country's central bank told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Tallinn is the first EU capital to offer its residents free public transport, and though the move aimed at driving down car pollution is proving popular, visitors feel let down and others are accusing City Hall of a campaign gimmick.
After wrapping up talks with their European counterparts, Latin American leaders on Sunday opened their own summit here, with the event notable for the absence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
British Prime Minister David Cameron faces a frosty reception from the global elite at the annual Davos meeting on Thursday after his vow to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
EU leaders put a crisis-hit year behind them at the last summit of 2012 Friday, trumpeting hard-fought deals on Greece and banks but seemed to row back on reforms to fix the euro's shortcomings.
The European Union agreed early Thursday to create a bank supervisor to oversee lenders across the eurozone, following marathon talks which ended hours before the year's final EU summit.
Peru has approved a free trade agreement with the European Union and Colombia that will allow 75 percent of agricultural products and 100 percent of other goods to enter the eurozone duty-free.
The three European Union leaders in Norway to collect the Nobel peace prize moved Sunday to defuse criticism of the 2012 award, vowing the crisis-hit bloc would emerge strong and remain on a course of peace.