Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, trade commissioner Karel De Gucht announced on Monday a free trade deal between the EU and Singapore, a move that should further open the Asian country's markets for financial services and make it easier for European automakers to export there. After the completion of negotiations by the European Commission, member states and the European Parliament need to sign off for the agreement to come into force.

Recommendations agreed by a special advisory group  follow nine months of discussions on the fate of the EU’s common market organisation, or CMO, that for years has allowed government intervention to prevent a glut of grapes grown for wine.

The compromise deal announced on 14 December would postpone the liberalisation of planting for up to six years. The panel also called for giving national authorities flexibility in authorising new vine plantings for all wine categories so long as they are within an agreed EU-wide limit that still must be determined.

Agricultural ministers are to get a ‘progress report’ on the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) on Wednesday (19 December), their final meeting under the leadership of the Cypriot presidency of the EU Council.

But little action is expected because of deadlocked talks over the EU’s next seven-year budget and contentious ‘greening’ proposals. The final design of the CAP for 2014-2020 is likely to be decided under the Irish presidency of the European Council.

Setting aside doubts about Colombia's human rights record, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted to allow the deals to come into force next year, building on the eight countries' separate free trade agreements with the United States.

"At a time when our economy is struggling, it is vital that the EU forges stronger links with emerging economies," said Catherine Bearder, a British liberal lawmaker who voted for the pacts.

Signing off on a plan first considered in 1973, 25 of the EU's 27 industry ministers – apart from Spain and Italy – agreed to allow inventors to register their idea with one EU agency.

The old system makes the process 18 times more expensive than in the United States and 60 times more than in China. Under the previous system, patents had to be registered separately in individual EU countries.