With tourism revenues hit by the economic crisis and the disruption to air travel caused by the Icelandic ash cloud, the EU will on Wednesday propose more than a dozen initiatives to encourage member states to work together rather than just promoting their own tourist haunts.

Olivier Chastel, the Belgian secretary of state for EU affairs...raised the possibility of the opening of a new chapter in negotiations with Turkey in the coming months after Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, backed Ankara's bid despite resistance from France and Germany.

For those Europeans concerned with China's growing prowess, here is another reason to be alert. The Chinese are about to cross the Danube. Not with tanks or communist propaganda, but with cash and a charm offensive.

Turkey's president sounded an optimistic note Wednesday about his country's prospects of joining the European Union despite its recent turn toward the East.

Nearly 200,000 students are now choosing to spend a year abroad as part of the European Union's Erasmus programme, one sign of increasing integration across the EU, new figures show.

In the absence of a credible hard power global role, the EU's real influence comes in the form of its market's ability to attract partners and thereby spread norms. With European growth projections looking bleak for the next few years, this trend is likely to become generalized, meaning that EU soft power is going to take an even greater hit than it has in the past year.

After months of delay, the creation of the European Union’s new diplomatic service took a significant step forward Monday, opening the way for it to start phasing in operations by autumn.

The Shanghai World Expo is "a perfect opportunity to build on and further strengthen the good relations" between the European Union and China, an EU official said Thursday. "The European Union is China's main economic partner and we have built a strategic partnership with the Chinese government over the years," Viviane Reding, vice president of the EU Commission, told Xinhua in an interview.