From RIA Novosti:  The foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Tuesday handed the European Commission a letter in which they complained that Austria released wanted ex-KGB Col. Mikhail Golovatov less than 24 hours after his arrest.

On Wednesday June 29, the Barroso Commission presented the European Union 2013-2020 budget. The negotiations between the member states and the European Parliament have thus begun, and the process will be long and difficult.

From Stephen Castle, the International Herald Tribune:  There are few better illustrations of those continuing turf wars than the reaction to the death of Bin Laden.

From Stephen Castle, Foreign Policy:  The crisis in Libya is a rare instance in which Europeans can plausibly claim to be outdoing Americans in foreign policy, and a rarer one still of the old world being more prepared than the new to use its military muscle.

From the BBC:  The EU has reported a "serious" cyber attack on the Commission and External Action Service on the eve [3/23] of a summit in Brussels, a spokesman told the BBC.

From the Wall Street Journal:  The London Telegraph reports that in 2009 the EU gave at least €2.6 million ($3.6 million) to groups lobbying against the death penalty in America.

From Stephen Castle, the New York Times:  Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia warned European officials on Thursday that uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East could produce governments hostile to the West, and he criticized the European Union’s energy policy.

From the Editors, the New York Times:  [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel is finally engaging, but the proposals she, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, presented to European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday ask too much and do not offer enough in return.