The Falkland Islands urged the EU Commission to ensure that the rights of citizens of Overseas Counties and Territories are not compromised in relations with countries and regional bodies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have said they will meet next week to discuss the Euro zone debt crisis. Their first meeting of 2012 comes after all EU countries except the UK agreed to work together on a new treaty to stabilise the Euro zone.
British PM David Cameron has said he “genuinely looked to reach an agreement” at the EU summit but vetoed treaty change because it was not in the national interest. Cameron told MPs he negotiated in “good faith” and his demands were “modest, reasonable and relevant”.
The European Commission decided to cut aid from its 2014-2020 budget to 19 emerging economies including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and seven other Latin American countries, the EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs said on Wednesday.
The European Commission has put forward stricter rules for the credit rating agencies that rank countries' and companies' debt. The rules says agencies, including Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, should follow stricter standards, be more transparent about their ratings and be held accountable for their mistakes.
Uruguay and the European Commission agreed on the importance of promoting economic and investment relations and ratified their commitment to advance negotiations for a Mercosur/EU wide ranging trade and association agreement that is “integral, balanced and ambitious”.
Major trading nations led by Argentina, Brazil and Russia are raising barriers to international and threatening the global economic recovery, the European Union's executive arm said on Wednesday.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the European Union's treaty should be changed to prevent one member state from destabilizing the rest of the bloc, and urged stronger governance of the Euro zone.
The president of the European Commission called Wednesday for EU leaders to bring forward the introduction of a permanent rescue mechanism for states to mid-2012 from mid-2013 and called for more rigorous capital standards for banks.
Brazil and the European Union must take concerted action to calm markets fearful of global contagion spreading from Europe's debt crisis, leaders from both sides said on Tuesday.