An unusual online effort by NATO, the European Union, governments and research groups to ask a broader public for ideas on the future of Western security policy has produced a series of recommendations...

In what the White House has billed a major address, US Vice President Biden will speak at the European Parliament on Thursday. Members of parliament hope that he will reaffirm US-EU ties - and patch up a few things.

It's the first time the EU has been represented at a world fair outside Europe: for 6 months (starting 1 May), the bloc will have its own pavilion in Shanghai - at the specific invitation of China, its second biggest trade partner.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will lead a high-level EU delegation to China tomorrow (29 April) ahead the inauguration on Saturday of a pavilion showcasing the European Union at the Shanghai World Expo.

The European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton hopes to gain the support of foreign ministers over plans for a European diplomatic service. Opinion is divided about how the organization, which would represent the EU around the globe, should be organized.

It is probably in the area of foreign policy that Europeans have the highest expectations of the Lisbon Treaty. They expect a European Union that is capable of speaking with one voice on the major international issues that concern them directly.

If further proof were needed that the Labour Party has all but abandoned the Special Relationship, look no further than their new manifesto, which doesn't even mention the partnership with America, except for a brief throwaway reference to a "false choice" between the US and Europe.

The question of whether Russia is Europe's partner or challenger is the wrong question," Karaganov said. The former advisor to Presidents Putin and Yeltsin said that politicians ought to be asking whether the two sides are "allies or strategic idiots.