Brussels - European Union countries must improve their energy efficiency and stop using the financial crisis as an excuse not to reduce pollution, the bloc's top officials said Thursday.

"The financial crisis has not diminished the risks to our planet deriving from climate change," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Brussels.

Brussels - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plans for a Europe-wide security pact look set to be Russia's priority at the European Union-Russia summit in the French resort of Nice on Friday.

Medvedev first spoke of his desire to create a "treaty on the basic principles for security and intergovernmental relations in the Euro-Atlantic region" in a speech in Berlin on June 5. He added details in a speech in the French spa town of Evian on October 8.

Brussels - The European Union will fail to meet its goal of cutting energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020 unless it makes better buildings and products, the bloc's executive said Thursday.

The warning was accompanied by a package designed to increase the bloc's energy efficiency and reduce its dependency on energy imports.

One proposal involves extending popular energy-efficiency labels now found on consumer goods such as fridges and washing machines to industrial products and buildings.

Another involves creating more off-shore wind farms and investing more money in gas and electricity networks.

Rome/Brussels - A European Commission decision that an Italian state loan to Alitalia was "illegal," on Wednesday hit the ailing carrier as it was also attempting to deal with disruption caused by an ongoing wildcat strike.

Alitalia's bankruptcy commissioner, Augusto Fantozzi, said in an afternoon statement that the airline has mandated its lawyers to pursue legal action against striking employees.

These had caused "damages" to Alitalia's schedule and to that of its clients at airports Fiumicino in Rome and Linate in Milan, Fantozzi said.

Brussels - The European Commission on Wednesday imposed an unprecedented 1.38-billion-euro (1.76-billion-dollar) combined fine on four car glass manufacturers found guilty of forging a cartel designed to keep prices artificially high.

An investigation concluded that managers of Asahi of Japan, Britain's Pilkington, Saint-Gobain of France and Belgium's Soliver had taken part in a series of illegal talks in a number of European airports and hotels between 1998 and 2003. The meetings were used to fix prices and market share and to allocate customers to each other.

Brussels - The European Commission on Wednesday proposed tough rules designed to impr