Hitherto, Mr Pangalos had been seen as a shrewd politician who could both stand up to Turkey and work the system in Brussels to get cash and concessions for Greece.

ECONOMIST: George Papandreou, flouting Greek tradition

The US started receiving data from Swift, a money transfer system based in Brussels which handles millions of transactions daily.

BBC: Q&A: US data deal with Europe

Shadow fisheries minister Fiona O'Donnell said Labour supported "genuine decentralisation of powers away from Brussels... towards a system of regionalised management".

BBC: Common Fisheries Policy debate

The present system, whereby big countries send two commissioners to Brussels and small countries one, means an over-generous 20 commissioners already.

ECONOMIST: The EU��s coming wrangle for reforms and spoils

LSE, thinks the European Commission in Brussels should go further and impose a single European clearing and settlement system like America's.

ECONOMIST: Securities exchanges

The European Commission will only be satisfied if there are objective standards by which a company is placed under the consolidated global system, says Howard Liebman, a lawyer at Jones Day in Brussels.

ECONOMIST: French business

The board members also were under the impression that EU leaders in Brussels were poised to unveil a comprehensive plan to stabilize the Continent's financial system, said those familiar with their thinking.

WSJ: European Disunion: Ties That Bound Europe Now Fraying

But unlike the American version, this superstate would not be a system of checks and balances but one where effective power would reside overwhelmingly in Brussels.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

In Brussels senior EU officials fret that horrors still lurk in parts of Germany's banking system: nobody knows, because the German government has kept the real situation secret.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne