Most EU countries abuse the rights of migrants and ethnic minorities, while others are not doing enough to combat homophobia, Amnesty International has said.

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The UK should delay plans to push through further austerity measures worth £10 billion (€12 billion), the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday.

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Germany is helping youngsters from Spain, Portugal and Greece to find jobs, as regional statistics show 17 times more unemployed young Greeks compared to Germans.

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IMF chief Christine Lagarde is Thursday appearing for questioning at a court in Paris in a criminal probe into whether public funds were misused when she served as France's finance minister. She took a case of French tycoon Bernard Tapie to an arbitration panel, who awarded the businessman €420 million.    

Italy's national statistics agency ISTAT on Wednesday published its Annual Report 2013 saying 8.6 million Italians are in such “serious economic difficulty” that they have stopped basic expenditure, such as buying meat or heating their homes. Among the 18-24 aged, 89 percent are financially reliant on their parents.    

Germany will back a British request to blacklist Hezbollah following the terrorist attack in Burgas, Bulgaria last summer, Reuters reports. "Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle supports listing at least the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the EU," a German diplomatic source said.    

The new €5 note is reportedly being rejected by many vending machines with old software. In an experiment in 10 cities, Italian daily La Repubblica found that, in 90% of cases, the notes were returned to the customer. Similar problems have also been reported in Germany, Belgium and Portugal.    

Norwegian foreign minister Barth Eide has in a letter to Norwegian MPs indicated the UN Security Council should consider sanctions on Russian officials linked to the alleged murder of whistleblower accountant Magnitsky. He described the case as "symbolic" of a wider trend in Russia, including its crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs.    

Battered women and other victims of violence will be afforded greater EU-wide protection after a vote by euro-deputies in Strasbourg on Wednesday.    

EU leaders in Brussels for a summit on tax evasion hailed new political "momentum," but agreed few concrete measures.

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EU enlargement chief Fuele and foreign policy head Ashton have told Georgia they expect to see a "fair, transparent and independent" trial after the arrest of former PM Merabishvili and former health minister Chiaberashvili on charges of embezzlement and abuse of office, in events recalling Ukraine's crackdown on opposition leaders.    

EU leaders have agreed to keep the old EU set-up of one commissioner per country (with the EU Council and EU foreign policy chief posts included in the total). The Lisbon Treaty said the number should fall to two thirds of EU states, unless there is a "unanimous" decision otherwise.    

EU countries are to send up to 110 civilian experts to help post-war Libya to manage its land and sea borders. The mission, agreed on Wednesday, is to last two years with a budget of €30mn in its first year and will be led by Finnish customs chief Antti Hartikainen.    

Iceland's new ruling coalition has put its EU accession bid on ice pending a referendum. Its incoming PM Daviv Gunnlaugsson told press on Wednesday: "The government intends to halt negotiations between Iceland and the European Union. We will not hold further negotiations with the European Union without prior referendum."    

European Union leaders Wednesday welcomed a US-Russian initiative to hold an international peace conference on Syria in Geneva as soon as possible. The current EU arms embargo on Syria expires on 1 June and requires unanimous support of all 27 member states to be extended in its present form.    

EU leaders have said shale gas could make a big contribution to lower energy costs, pushing aside environmental concerns.

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Germany is starting a series of conferences and bilateral programmes with Spain, Portugal and Greece to help them with youth employment schemes. "It would be a quite desirable side effect" if the move also helped improve Germany's austerity-driven image at EU level, finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday.    

MEPs Wednesday demanded guarantees that the European Central Bank's supervisory arm will be directly accountable to the European Parliament. Although the Parliament does not have co-decision powers on the ECB regulation, it is withholding its support for parallel reforms to the European Banking Authority    

The European Parliament has called on member states to reject a request by the Czech government for an exemption from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The proposal was rejected by 572 votes to 80.    

"Every year the EU loses revenue totalling a breathtaking €1 trillion as a result of tax fraud", European Parliament Martin Schulz told EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. "That’s €2000 per year for every EU citizen, four times as much as per capita EU spending on education," he said.