Brussels - Police in Belgium

Brussels - European Union leaders were Thursday expected to agree on keeping a rule allowing each member state to nominate a member of the European Commission in 2014, in a move designed to convince Ireland to approve the reforming Lisbon Treaty.

"The European Council agrees that provided the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, a decision will be taken, in accordance with the necessary legal procedures, to the effect that the commission shall continue to include one national of each member state," reads a draft statement seen by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, due to be discussed by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.

Brussels - The French presidency of the European Union on Thursday proposed a watered-down set of laws on fighting climate change in a bid to win EU backing at a crucial end-of-year summit.

In Brussels, EU leaders are set to debate a series of proposals from the bloc's executive, the European Commission, aimed at cutting emissions of greenhouse gases to
20 per cent below 1990 levels, in line with a pledge made by heads of state and government in March 2007.

Brussels - The fight against climate change and European efforts to stave off a massive recession were set to top the agenda on Thursday as European Union leaders gathered in Brussels for what has been billed as the most crucial summit in years.

"This will be perhaps the most crucial European (summit) in recent years ... a real test for Europe," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the meeting.

Brussels - The European Union on Wednesday approved an Austrian plan to support the country's banking sector valued at 90 billion euros (116 billion dollars).

The plan, originally approved by the Austrian parliament on October 20, consists of a state guarantee for interbank loans capped at 75 billion euros, and a further guarantee for liabilities and assets capped at 15 billion euros.

The Austrian government informed the European Commission, the EU's executive, of its plans at the end of October.

The commission is tasked with overseeing the EU's strict competition rules, and therefore has the final say in matters of state aid.

Brussels - The European Union is increasing its aid to Pakistan to 50 million euros (63 million dollars) over the next three years, the bloc's external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero- Waldner, said Monday.

The money is to be directed at boosting EU programmes in the field of education, trade and farming in Pakistan's north-west, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

"The border area is very important," Ferrero-Waldner said, noting that educational programmes were particularly important in a destitute part of the country that is also a breeding-ground for terrorists.