Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

Romania has dropped setting a target date for adopting the euro, although officials insisted that joining the single currency remains a fundamental objective for the country, according to reports.

The Romanian news agency Mediafax said the Romanian government would submit to the European Commission for the first time a programme on progress towards adoption of the euro without a target date.

Going to Germany, the country's leading economic think tanks have trimmed their growth forecast for Europe's biggest economy this year.

The four institutes- Ifo in Munich, IfW in Kiel, IW in Halle and RWI in Essen, predicted that the German economy would expand by 0.8pc in 2013, a downward revision from 1pc growth, then grow by 1.9pc in 2014. They said the cut to projected 2013 growth was due to the fact that the economy had to catch up this year after contracting in the fourth quarter of 2012.   I look at this the other way....let the sinking German economy pay in full for the Cypriotic mess....the only awkward caveat being they have the influence to hoodwink the Troica to raid depositors accounts.

So other countries have no say; they can simply block any contributions to IMF fund and direct sequestration attempts.

In essence; the man in the wheelchair has just confirmed that Germany will dictate how the EU economy is run. This is a big mistake....The Cypriot bail-out may now hinge on the Mediterranean island's own parliament, which is sorely divided over the rescue.

Early signs are that nearly half the members of the 56-seat Cypriot parliament may oppose it, a step that could plunge the island into fresh crisis, possible bankruptcy and all but spell a eurozone exit.

How Cameron is going to attempt EU top-end reforms has been made near impossible.

Aah Herr Schaeuble, you resort to the politician's time-honoured ploy: When you have lost the rational argument, use fear.

One day soon, you and all the others trapped in the dysfunctional Eurozone will find out that nothing happens when a country leaves. Nothing for the departing country except a short, sharp shock followed by equally quick recovery - you know, like Iceland.....

Of course the great fear that dare not speak its name is that once one country leaves the Eurozone, others will stampede for the exits. And once they leave the Eurozone and prosper, serious doubt will arise over the need for ever-closer political union within the EU.

That will cause a flutter in the Brussels dovecote won't it?

Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, has been summoned to a French court to testify in the probe into a high-profile scandal that occurred when she was a government minister.

According to news website Mediapart, Ms Lagarde could be placed under formal investigation for a decision she made while finance minister to go ahead with an arbitration to settle a dispute between the state and billionaire businessman Bernard Tapie, in defiance of objections from her advisers.

Magistrates from a special court that handles alleged abuses by government ministers suspect Ms Lagarde of complicity in misusing public funds as finance minister when she decided to go ahead with the arbitration.

Ms Lagarde denies any wrongdoing.