Brussels/Paris - A spokesman for the European Commission on Monday denied that Brussels was blocking the French bank bailout, after French media reported that the 10.5-billion-euro (13.24- billion-dollar) plan was in trouble.

"There is no blocking. The commission is working with the French authorities," European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told reporters in Brussels, adding that a decision on the plan could come as early as this week.

Brussels  - Pharmaceutical companies in Europe have regularly tried to block cheaper products made by their rivals, costing consumers and taxpayers some 3 billion euros (3.9 billion dollars) in extra bills, European Union officials said Friday.

"There is evidence that originator companies have engaged in practices with the objective of delaying or blocking market entry of competing medicines," the EU's executive, the European Commission, said as it released a report on the industry.

"Additional savings of around 3 billion euros would have been possible on (a sample of medicines in 17 countries) over this period (2000-07) if generic medicines had entered the market without delay," the commission said in a statement.

Geneva/Brussels - The plan for Switzerland to join Europe's free movement Schengen area would help improve security for the confederation as well as for neighboring states, an official said Thursday.

"We want to improve the security situation in Europe," said Brigitte Hause-Suss, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

By joining Schengen, the Swiss and the other European members, though not Britain and Ireland which remain outside the pact, would share information on terrorism, criminal threats and asylum seekers.

Brussels - The European Union's richest members must make concessions to their poorer peers if the bloc is to agree to a landmark deal on fighting climate change, a Polish minister insisted Thursday.

"We are as far from an agreement as we were in October ... It is really difficult to understand why a number of the most affluent member states ... are not really moving an inch," Polish Minister for Europe Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told journalists in Brussels.

Brussels - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer condemned Thursday what he described as a "cowardly" terrorist attack targeting innocent victims in Mumbai.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the mindless and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Attacking innocent people, tourists and patients in hospitals is despicable and cowardly," de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

The head of the transatlantic alliance offered his solidarity and sympathy to the victims and said his organization would "spare no effort to fight the scourge of terrorism."

Brussels - Switzerland is to join the European Union's free movement Schengen area a