Brussels -- Belgian commentators awaited with trepidation Friday the return of disgraced former premier Yves Leterme after incumbent Herman Van Rompuy was named as the European Union's first full-time president.

Leterme headed the Belgian government in 2008 at a time of vicious political infighting between the country's Dutch-speaking majority and French-speaking minority. Commentators warn that his expected rehabilitation could spark a new round of strife.

Brussels - Top diplomats from the so-called "5+1" group of world powers were to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss how to respond to Iran's refusal to reach a nuclear deal, diplomats said Thursday.

Officials from the UN Security Council's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany were to also hold talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, spokeswoman Cristina Gallach told the German Press Agency dpa.

Brussels  - Young women perform better than their male counterparts on their final university exams and are on average finished with their studies sooner.

In Germany for example the number of female freshmen at colleges and universities has been greater than the number of men for many years.

Despite these statistics one thing remains stubbornly the same: Women in top positions at large enterprises and important economic institutions are still a rarity. Economics and finance are still largely a male domain within the European Union.

Brussels  - Following tough negotiations, European Union governments and the European Parliament agreed Wednesday night on the 16-member bloc's budget for 2010.

A decision was reached to increase expenditure by 6 per cent to 122.9 billion euros, EU diplomats said Wednesday night in Brussels. The budget must still be approved by parliament in December.

"The budget is a powerful response to the economic crisis," said Hans Lindblad, Sweden's state secretary for finance, after the nearly 12-hour-long discussions.

Brussels - European regulators Wednesday cleared the restructuring plans of three major banks hit by the global financial crisis - Dutch concern ING, Britain's Lloyds HBOS, and Belgium's KBC.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said all three plans complied with the European Union's strict rules on state aid and would secure the bank's long term viability. Possible distortions to competition will be prevented through the sale or run-down of assets.

Brussels - European regulators Wednesday cleared the restructuring plans of three major banks hit by the global financial crisis - Dutch concern ING, Britain's Lloyds HBOS, and Belgium's KBC.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said all three plans complied with the European Union's strict rules on state aid and would secure the bank's long term viability. Possible distortions to competition will be prevented through the sale or run-down of assets.

Brussels  - A current joke in European Union circles runs, "What is the hottest place in Europe?"

The answer is "Fredrik Reinfeldt's telephone."

Sweden's prime minister currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. As such, he has been tasked with leading negotiations to appoint the bloc's first-ever permanent president ahead of a summit on November 19.

And officials say that Reinfeldt and his staff have been rarely off the phone in recent days as they have called every national leader in the EU to ask who their choice would be.

Brussels - The European Union on Thursday called for the release of four Georgian minors held in the Russian-controlled breakaway province of South Ossetia.

"The European Union expresses its deep concern with respect to the recent detentions of Georgian citizens, especially the detention of four minors at the administrative boundary line to South Ossetia, Georgia, on 4 November and urges for a rapid release of all detained persons," read a statement issued by the EU's Swedish presidency.

Brussels - National governments should appoint more women to the bloc's executive arm in Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.

About a third of the 27 commissioners in the outgoing executive are women, and Barroso has been pushing for an even stronger gender balance in his second administration.

Brussels - Spain and Italy are the European Union's worst performers when it comes to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, new figures released by the European Commission on Thursday showed.

Embarrassingly, Denmark, which is due to host UN climate-change talks at the end of the year, is also likely to miss the reduction targets set by the Kyoto Protocol on fighting climate change unless it buys credits for cuts which other countries have made.

Brussels - European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to raise the minimum level of taxes applied on cigarettes across the bloc in a bid to cut smoking and reduce tobacco smuggling.

As from January 1, 2014, the minimum excise rate will increase from 0.064 euros (0.1 dollars) per cigarette to 0.09 euros.

The proportional minimum will accordingly be raised, from today's 57 per cent to 60 per cent of the weighted average sales price.

Brussels - The European Union's executive has launched an anti-trust probe into news group Thomson Reuters, to investigate whether its real-time business data feeds may be set up to keep competitors out of the market, the European Commission announced Tuesday.

If found guilty, the company could face a heavy fine and be forced to change its system.

"The commission will investigate Thomson Reuters' practices in the area of real time market data feeds, and in particular whether customers or competitors are prevented from translating Reuters Instrument Codes (RICs) to alternative identification codes ... to the detriment of competition," a statement said.

Brussels - The European Commission faced accusations of favouritism Tuesday as it prepared to issue different deadlines for European Union governments to restore their public finances.

Latest figures from the European Commission show a majority of European Union member states posting 2009 budget deficits well in excess of the 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) limit set by the bloc's Stability and Growth Pact.

Deficits have soared as a result of governments spending aimed at mitigating the impact of the recession.

Brussels  - The recession has increased European perceptions that age may be a problem when seeking a new job, according to a European Union survey published Monday.

The Eurobarometer survey, which polled citizens in the EU as well as in candidate countries Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey between May 29 and June 15, found that 64 per cent of respondents were concerned that the economic downturn would lead to more age discrimination on the labour market.

Brussels  - European Union citizens are now able to check how bad for their health industrial plants near their homes are, after the EU's executive on Monday opened an online tracker for the main pollutants.

The register "will give citizens direct access to information on (pollution) emissions from facilities across Europe and will help them to engage actively in decisions affecting the environment," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.

Brussels  - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso planned to attend Monday's "Festival of Freedom" domino-toppling extravaganza marking the
20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The head of the European Union's executive arm said he painted one of the dominoes himself, together with school children from Brussels.

Barroso said the collapse of the wall that had divided East and West Berlin for decades represented "an impressive symbol of the reunification of Germany and the whole of Europe."

Brussels, Nov. 6 : Britain has emerged as the European capital for online synthetic drug trading, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has warned.

Britain-based websites account for 42 percent trade of "legal highs" or “synthetic cannabinoid’s” in Europe, providing safe havens to the suppliers of "Spice", "Smoke" or "Sense" and other controversial products.

Brussels, Nov 5 : Some members of the European Parliament have expressed "great concern" over Pakistan imposing its rule in Gilgit Baltistan rather than allowing the people to decide their political future.

The EU members have formed a group called "Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan", which will "monitor very carefully all developments that take place" in the strategic border region, a part of the Pakistan-administered Kashmir where elections for its first assembly are scheduled Nov 12.

Brussels  - Drug dealers are targeting Europe with innovative new products - some of them still legal - and increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies, a new report out Thursday warns.

"Suppliers are now 'highly innovative' in their production processes, product ranges and marketing and are demonstrating their ability to adapt quickly to controls," said the
2009 report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

Brussels  - Britain's David Miliband has emerged as the man to beat in the race to become the EU's first foreign-policy supremo, a top diplomat confirmed Wednesday.

But the race to become the EU's first president is still too close to call, with the Belgian and Dutch premiers, Herman van Rompuy and Jan Peter Balkenende, the names most touted in diplomatic circles, Poland's ambassador to the EU, Jan Tombinski, told journalists.

"The name of David Miliband is the most quoted name in this (diplomatic) circle, probably for the reason that Tony Blair's chances are going down," Tombinski said.