So to keep pace with the 2.4% inflation rate in Brussels the EU pay increase for 2010-2011 would have to be 0.4%, he said.

BBC: Top EU court backs Commission over staff pay rise

The 2013 EU budget is 132.8bn euros - a 2.4% increase on the 2012 budget.

BBC: EU budget: Leaders edge towards compromise deal

With his country officially in recession, he is struggling to meet an April 30th deadline for plans to bring the deficit down from 4.6% of GDP to the EU-mandated target of 3% next year.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

If the status quo is maintained, by 2011 around 15% of the EU's wine output--currently around 180 million hectoliters (4.8 billion gallons) a year--will be destined for distilleries, perhaps ending up in very happy Volvos, Fiats and Peugeots.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The package, called Capital Requirements Directive 4 (CRD4), brings the EU into line with the so-called "Basel III" rules on banking standards, which set new capital requirements for banks.

BBC: EU tightens up bank lending rules and bonuses

The EU Commission, which drafts EU laws, has called for an increase of 4.8% on the 2007-2013 budget.

BBC: EU budget: David Cameron says deal 'not good enough'

The EU Commission, which drafts EU laws, has called for an increase of 4.8% compared with the 2007-2013 budget.

BBC: EU budget summit opens with hard bargaining

MEPs broadly followed a recommendation by the Budgets Committee to back - and exceed - the Commission's proposal for a 4.9% increase in the EU's 2012 budget compared with the 2011 budget.

BBC: MEPs insist on above-inflation budget increase

Up on the committee corridor, Lords EU Committee-B, on Internal Market, Infrastructure and Employment issues has a session (at 4.05pm) on women on boards - with evidence from Helena Morrissey, founder of the 30% Club and Sonja Lokar, president of the European Women's Lobby.

BBC: Summer recess approaches

Now the GDP per head in West Wales and the Valleys, as a percentage of the average across all EU regions, has fallen - according to the latest, official, Eurostat figures, to 68.4%.

BBC: Difficult reading, difficult call

"In our manifesto we are very carefully treading a fine line between calling for things that are just going to be a non-starter, where the rest of Europe will say 'just forget it', and choosing those topics that are really important to Britain, that would really be a game-changer for Britain's relationship with the EU, " Mrs Leadsom told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

BBC: Europe: Conservative group demands return of powers to UK

The EU's economic growth is projected to be 2% in 2004 and 2.4% in 2005 - roughly half the global growth rates for those two years.

BBC: EU leaders in Rome, 29 Oct 04