Angela Merkel, a conservative, and François Hollande, a socialist, have had an uneasy relationship since the French president swept into office eight months ago vowing to reverse German-backed austerity policies designed to shore up the crisis-hit euro zone.

But the two leaders, born less than a month apart in the summer of 1954, stressed their common values and hailed the importance of the Franco-German partnership after centuries of conflict that culminated in two world wars and led historians to speak of a "hereditary enmity".

The draft rules proposed by the European Commission in 2010 were meant to unblock EU decision-making on genetically modified crops, by allowing some countries to use the technology while letting others impose cultivation bans.

But opposition from France, Germany and Britain has prevented agreement on the proposals, which must be approved by a majority of governments and the European Parliament before becoming law.

But calls for the EU to deliver a ‘silver bullet’ and emulate the US by tapping shale gas through ‘fracking’ (see background) remain controversial because of environmental and logistical concerns.

Partly due to its shale reserves, the United States is expected to become almost self-sufficient in oil and gas by 2035 and will overtake Russia in gas production by 2015 and Saudi Arabia in oil production by 2017, a recent International Energy Agency forecast shows.

TAP and its shareholders – Axpo, Statoil and E.ON – said in a statement that they have concluded a shareholder agreement with three members of the Shah Deniz consortium.

BP and Norway's Statoil each hold a 25.5% stake in the Shah Deniz consortium. Other shareholders include SOCAR and France's Total.

The shareholder agreement will take effect once the partners decide to exercise their options to join the TAP Joint Venture, taking a combined stake of up to 50% in TAP AG.

The deputies approved changes to a law that regulates their activity, lowering their housing and transport allowances but also making it harder for prosecutors to investigate them for graft or conflict of interest.

Romania's European Union partners have its justice system under close scrutiny and last year expressed concerns over the rule of law when the ruling leftist alliance tried to impeach the country's president. The EU has also kept Romania out of its passport-free Schengen area.

With the European Parliament’s agricultural committee beginning two days of deliberations today (23 January) on future support for farmers, Sweden’s Board of Agriculture proposed the tax aimed at reducing the environmental impact of meat production.

Experts on the government board said there are environmental and health benefits to eating more vegetables.

EU finance ministers gave the green ligh

“Don’t you dare reduce the budget for culture. Culture is particularly necessary in times of crisis,” Vassiliou said on 20 January in Košice, Slovakia, the European capital of culture for 2013.

Her appeal comes ahead of the EU leadership summit on 7-8 February, which is expected to lead to adoption of the EU budget for 2014-2020.

Eleni Zaroulia, a deputy from the Golden Dawn party in Greece and her Hungarian colleague Tamás Gaudi Nagy, from the far-right Jobbik party, could see their accreditation withdrawn under challenges launched yesterday (21 January).

Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein accused both members of belonging to political parties which were “racist and anti-semitic” and that the values of these parties were in conflict with the Council of Europe’s ideals and principles (see background).