BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers are moving closer to agreeing a combined rescue fund of around 700 billion euros (582 billion pounds) in Copenhagen next week and anything higher would probably be too ambitious, euro zone diplomats said on Friday.

The EU’s top economic official, Olli Rehn, is pushing for a big fund capable of bailing out indebted euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain, should they be cut off from the markets, despite resistance in Germany, the bloc’s paymaster.

BRUSSELS, March 23 (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers
are moving closer to agreeing a combined rescue fund of around
700 billion euros ($924 billion) in Copenhagen next week and
anything higher would probably be too ambitious, euro zone
diplomats said on Friday.

The EU’s top economic official, Olli Rehn, is pushing for a
big fund capable of bailing out indebted euro zone countries
such as Italy and Spain, should they be cut off from the
markets, despite resistance in Germany, the bloc’s paymaster.

BRUSSELS, March 15 (Reuters) – The number of people in
work in the euro zone fell again in the last three months of
2011 while hourly labour costs rose, highlighting Europe’s
difficulty in driving a U.S.-like recovery in jobs.

Employment in the 17 nations sharing the euro fell 0.2
percent in the fourth quarter compared to the third, the
European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Energy prices drove up the cost of living in the euro zone in February, likely to drag on a still-stagnant economy and dampening any sense of relief that Europe’s debt crisis is easing.

Energy costs were 9.5 percent higher in February than the same month a year ago, breaking a fall in euro zone inflation and pushing consumer prices up to 2.7 percent in the month, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said on Wednesday.

BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Reuters) – EU finance ministers suspended on Tuesday Hungary’s access to half a billion euros in aid from next year for failing to keep its budget in check, but told Budapest it could escape the sanctions if it takes remedial fiscal action by June.

Following a report from the OECD group of developed nations predicting the country would slide into recession, the finance chiefs agreed to rule in June whether or not Hungary can win back the 495 million euros if it makes progress on its deficit.

BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Reuters) – EU finance ministers suspended on Tuesday Hungary’s access to half a billion euros in aid from next year for failing to keep its budget in check, but told Budapest it could escape the sanctions if it takes remedial fiscal action by June.

Following a report from the OECD group of developed nations predicting the country would slide into recession, the finance chiefs agreed to rule in June whether or not Hungary can win back the 495 million euros if it makes progress on its deficit.

BUDAPEST/BRUSSELS, March 13 (Reuters) – The European
Union prepared to freeze half a billion euros in aid to Hungary
on Tuesday, for the first time punishing a member state for
flouting budget rules

Hungary was trying to block the move, a diplomat said, as a
report from the OECD group of developed nations predicted the
country of 10 million would slide into recession this year.

BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) – Euro zone finance
ministers grilled Spain on Monday over its budget deficit, which
is set to break stricter new EU rules this year, stressing that
Madrid must get back on target in 2013.

Greece, the bloc’s original problem debtor, swapped its
privately held bonds at the weekend for new, longer maturity
paper with less than half the nominal value, slashing more than
100 billion euros ($130 billion) from its debt.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU finance ministers are planning to freeze 495 million euros in aid to Hungary on Tuesday for failing to control its budget deficit, diplomats said, likely marking the first time the bloc will withhold funds to punish lax fiscal policy.

A large majority of the 27 ministers are prepared to vote in favour of a proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to suspend the funds for a year from next January, four diplomats said.