BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Ukraine needs to appoint a president quickly and avoid a legal battle over its election to convince the West it can forge coherent policies to pull it out of economic crisis and end years of infighting.

Western leaders, who see only minor differences in the policies of election rivals Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovich, hoped a clear-cut result would improve the chances of the next president having a strong mandate.

Incomplete results from Sunday’s presidential election put opposition leader Yanukovich on course to win but Tymoshenko, the prime minister, has indicated she may contest the result.

“We have the scenario most people didn’t want in Kiev — it’s tight and disputed. We need to see Ukraine’s leadership is ready to move on beyond the past and it will not reflect well on its relations with the West if nothing changes,” said Amanda Paul, an analyst at the European Policy Center, a think tank.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s efforts to improve its global image are looking increasingly unconvincing as it struggles to contain a debt crisis in Greece and put down talk that its 16-nation euro currency bloc could break up.

When the last of the EU’s 27 member states finally accepted the Lisbon reform treaty last year after nearly a decade of disputes and hesitation, EU leaders hailed the start of a bright new era for the world’s biggest trading bloc.

But two months after the treaty came into force, the EU is dogged by rivalry among member states, differences over economic policy, confusion over who does what and criticism that it has left economic problems to fester for too long.

Policymakers in the 16 countries that use the euro are struggling to convince markets about the stability of their euro zone because of fears that other debt-ridden countries such as Spain and Portugal could follow Greece into severe trouble.

BRUSSELS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The European Commission endorsed on Wednesday a Greek plan to cut its budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP by the end of 2012, but said it must take further steps to cut public sector wages and put finances in order.

In an assessment closely watched by financial markets weighing Greece’s credibility as a debtor, the European Union executive said Athens must submit an interim report on its deficit reduction progress by mid-March.

It said the plan would not be easy to implement but Greece, whose problems have prompted suggestions the EU may have to bail it out and that other countries could run into similar problems, must be ready to make further deep fiscal adjustments.

“We are endorsing the Greek program. But at the same time we know that the implementation of the program is not easy. It is difficult. This deserves support,” EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told a news conference.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union and the United States are likely to scrap plans to hold a summit in Madrid in May because U.S. President Barack Obama has decided not to attend, EU diplomats said on Tuesday.

Obama’s decision is a new blow to the EU’s hopes of boosting its global standing even though the president underlined the importance of relations with Spain and the 27-country bloc.

“The president is committed to a strong U.S.-EU partnership, and with Europe in general. There were no plans for the president to travel to Spain for a summit this spring,” White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.

A spokesman for the EU’s executive, the European Commission, said efforts were still being made to agree a date for the summit. But EU diplomats said privately the May meeting would not take place without the U.S. president.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton

Catherine Ashton has signalled her intention of giving the European Union’s relationship with the United States more prominence in her new role as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs.

How productive that relationship proves to be depends largely on how much Washington believes it needs the EU and how much it deals with the European Union as a whole, rather than with its member states one-to-one.

Ashton made her intentions clear by going to Washington for talks last week on one of her first trips since starting her new job on Dec. 1 last year.

MADRID, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Leaders of the European Union called on the 27 member states on Friday to coordinate their economic policy more closely to boost growth and ensure the bloc emerges strongly from the financial crisis.

They made the fight against climate change a priority at talks launching Spain’s six-month presidency of the bloc, and tried to allay concern that the EU leadership may lack cohesion as it implements changes under its new Lisbon reform treaty.

“We need more economic growth, now and in the future,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy told a news conference after talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

“It is only by working very closely together at all levels that we will be able to deliver results and face challenges.”

MADRID, Jan 7 (Reuters) – European Union president Spain proposed on Thursday setting binding economic goals for member states under a 10-year plan to boost growth and competiveness, and called for corrective measures for those that do not comply.

The proposals, outlined by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, could alarm other member states because the EU has stopped short of taking punitive measures in the past against countries that have not complied with EU targets.

But Zapatero made clear he believed that, after the worst economic crisis in decades, firm moves were needed to increase the 27-country bloc’s chances of achieving strong growth under a plan of economic reforms until 2020.

The 2020 strategy will replace an earlier plan that failed in its goal of making the EU, a bloc representing nearly 500 million people, the world’s most competitive economy by 2010 and also missed a series of targets set by the bloc’s leaders.

BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Britain and France joined forces at a European Union summit on Thursday to demand that bankers’ bonuses be taxed heavily and Germany called for solidarity with Greece over a mounting debt problem.

A British spokesman said Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had agreed on the need to tax big bonuses substantially following the economic crisis at a 30-minute meeting on the sidelines of the summit in Brussels.

The talks eased tension over the appointment of former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier to help oversee a banking shake-up, which alarmed Britons who fear Paris will seek tougher regulation of London, Europe’s main financial centre.

“They are both completely aligned on the importance of that sort of (tax) scheme to ensure that going forward we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past and move towards an era of more responsible banking,” spokesman Simon Lewis said.

BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Britain urged European Union leaders to consider moves to tax bankers’ bonuses at a summit on Thursday that was also likely to discuss debt problems in Greece.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote to other EU leaders urging them to put bankers’ bonuses on the agenda at the two-day summit in Brussels, which had been expected to focus on climate change. [ID:nBFA001002]

Many voters blamed bankers for the global economic crisis and are angry they could now receive huge bonuses, even though some of their banks were bailed out with taxpayers’ money.

Brown also wrote a newspaper article with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling for an exceptional tax on global bank bonuses, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel described a one-off tax on such bonuses as a charming idea. [ID:nBFA001001]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will try on Thursday to end tension over the appointment of a Frenchman to oversee a shake-up of European banking.

Their meeting on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels follows comments by Sarkozy describing the choice of former foreign minister Michel Barnier as a victory for France and the European economic model, and a big loss for free-market Britain.

Both sides deny any rift but the meeting is a chance to clear the air over Barnier’s future role in revamping financial supervision to prevent any repeat of the global economic crisis.

Suggesting that reports of a dispute had “got out of control,” a European diplomat said: “I think it’ll be fine. In two years, you will be wondering what all the fuss was about.”