VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Germany praised French and Italian reform efforts on Monday and said it ought to do more itself, striking a conciliatory note after Chancellor Angel Merkel's critique of Paris and Rome over the weekend irritated both countries.

The European Commission postponed until March its decisions on whether the 2015 budgets of France, Italy and Belgium break EU rules, saying it needed more information to be sure.

The European Union's top official for digital markets said on Monday he was concerned that big tech companies may be abusing dominant positions, but he also said investigations into Google must not be rushed.

EU lawmakers will likely vote on Thursday on a motion proposing the break-up of Google (GOOGL.O) and other Internet technology companies, increasing political pressure on the bloc’s antitrust regulators to take a stronger line on the group.

Japan needs to open up its beer market to European exports if Tokyo and Brussels are to agree one of the world's biggest free trade deals next year, according to an EU document prepared for the next round of talks in December.

The euro zone will need another year to reach even a modest level of economic growth, the European Commission said on Tuesday, calling on Germany to help as Chancellor Angela Merkel again rejected a spending spree.

Ukraine, Russia and the European Union signed a deal on Thursday on the resumption of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine for winter after several months of delay during the conflict in Ukraine.

The European Commission provisionally accepted the budgets of France and Italy, saying on Tuesday that no euro zone states had submitted deficit plans for next year that seriously breached EU rules for fiscal stability.

The incoming head of the EU executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, told the European Parliament on Wednesday that he would present his 300-billion-euro plan for investment to bolster growth and jobs by the end of this year.

Evaporating inflation and slowing growth have put financial markets into such a spin that they could inflict further damage on the world economy.

European companies in Russia warned on Tuesday they were being hurt by a Russian embargo on food imports as well as EU sanctions and risked being "sacrificed" in the standoff over Ukraine.

Lafarge (LAFP.PA) and Holcim (HOLN.VX) are about to request approval from the European Commission for their planned merger, Lafarge Chief Executive Bruno Lafont told reporters on Thursday.

European data privacy regulators on Thursday handed Google a package of guidelines to help it bring the way it collects and stores user data in line with EU law after six regulators opened investigations into the internet giant.

Germany and France will try to reconcile divergent visions of how to fix Europe's economy on Monday when Manuel Valls makes his first visit to Berlin as French prime minister and holds talks with Angela Merkel.

Greece's international creditors have no appetite for considering a haircut as a way to lighten its debt load, the head of the European Stability Mechanism, the euro zone's bailout fund organization, told Greek Sunday newspaper Realnews.