BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s bond buyback scheme failed to meet its target by a relatively narrow margin on Tuesday but still left international lenders with a 450-million euro hole in their plan to cut the country’s huge debts to a more manageable level.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss the shortfall in the scheme, under which Athens is buying back government bonds from its private creditors at steep discounts, in a conference call later on Tuesday, officials said.

OSLO, Dec 10 (Reuters) – European Union leaders are likely
to give political backing for the European Central Bank to be
made the single supervisor of euro zone banks later this week,
EU officials said on Monday, even if the final details may not
be agreed until next year.

Leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for their
last summit of the year, with the focus on setting up a ‘banking
union’ across the euro zone and wider EU, a plan built around
the ECB taking lead responsibility for banking oversight.

OSLO (Reuters) – The European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday, an award which some past winners called unjustified but European leaders defended for recognising the stability and democracy brought to the continent after two world wars.

Appropriately for a set of institutions with no single leader, the EU sent three of its presidents to collect the award at a ceremony in Oslo’s City Hall attended by 20 EU heads of state or government.

OSLO, Dec 10 (Reuters) – The European Union received the
Nobel Peace Prize on Monday, honoured by the Norwegian committee
which looked beyond Europe’s current malaise to recognise its
decades of stability and democracy after the horrors of two
world wars.

Fittingly for an institution with no single leader, the EU
sent three of its presidents to the Oslo ceremony for the 2012
prize, wh ich critics including former Nobel laureate Desmond
Tutu say is undeserved.

OSLO (Reuters) – The European Union will receive the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo on Monday, honored by the Norwegian committee for bringing decades of peace and democracy to Europe after the horrors and division of two world wars.

Looking beyond the current, deep malaise Europe finds itself in with slumping growth, soaring unemployment and countries unable to pay their debts, the Nobel committee has instead focused on what the EU has done over the past 60 years to reconcile the disparate, warring corners of the ‘old continent’.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders will examine a detailed plan for completing a banking union and strengthening euro zone fiscal policy next week, with officials concerned that momentum is waning in tackling the debt crisis.

In a report prepared for a December 13-14 EU summit, policymakers have set out a three-step process they hope will strengthen economic and monetary union and help prevent a repeat of the problems that have threatened the survival of the euro.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank should have full responsibility for overseeing euro zone banks by the start of 2014, a report prepared for EU leaders said on Thursday, indicating that creating a “banking union” will take longer than expected.

The 15-page report setting out the future of economic and monetary union also said a framework for allowing the direct recapitalization of troubled banks from the euro zone’s rescue fund should be finalized by the end of March next year.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Much has been written over the past year about the risks of a two-speed Europe in which the 17 euro zone countries move ahead more rapidly than the rest of the European Union.

Such a divergence, the conventional wisdom goes, could mark the beginning of an unraveling of nearly 60 years of post-war European integration and tear the EU apart.

BRUSSELS, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Much has been written over the
past year about the risks of a two-speed Europe in which the 17
euro zone countries move ahead more rapidly than the rest of the
European Union.

Such a divergence, the conventional wisdom goes, could mark
the beginning of an unravelling of nearly 60 years of post-war
European integration and tear the EU apart.

BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) – The European Commission
unveiled plans for a fundamental overhaul of how the euro zone
is structured on Wednesday, including the prospect of setting up
a common budget for the single currency area and issuing joint
debt in the years ahead.

In a five-page document dubbed a ‘blueprint’ for creating a
“deep and genuine” economic and monetary union, Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledged that the 17 countries
in the euro zone needed to be allowed to integrate more deeply
and at a faster rate than the rest of the 27-country bloc.