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The European Commission continued its work to implement the European Economic Recovery Plan with a special meeting with the representatives of trades unions and employers at EU level. It showed a wide consensus that the internal market and the Recovery Plan provided the right springboard for tackling the crisis and taking action on jobs in Europe, and that further measures would have to be put in place at EU level.

A new transatlantic partnership is needed to strengthen ties between the EU and America now that Barack Obama has taken office, says the EP Foreign Affairs Committee. MEPs are calling for a new institutional architecture including a political council and a joint parliamentary committee.

Europe must steer clear of protectionist temptations and quickly implement the recovery measures announced and adopted in the last months if it is serious about reducing the duration of the economic crisis and its impact on small businesses, according to UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers' organisation.

Fitch Ratings said that approximately 30% of all repossessions in the UK during 2008 came from defaults of non-conforming borrowers, despite this sector comprising under 10% of the entire UK mortgage market.

Fitch Ratings says that the collapse of Latvia's coalition government on 20 February 2009 could delay the adoption of budget amendments to maintain Latvia's budget deficit at 5% of GDP, as required by the IMF under a EUR7.5bn loan programme agreed in December 2008. Furthermore, Fitch believes that a failure to maintain budget controls could delay the disbursement of international funds to Latvia, and lead to renewed pressure on Latvia's currency.

Predictions that half a million UK homeowners will fall into serious mortgage arrears this year is likely to lead to tens of thousands of homes being repossessed. While this is grim news for those homeowners, bargain hunters could help bring life back into the property market, says Primelocation.com.

In December 2008 compared with November 2008, the euro area (EA15) industrial new orders index fell by 5.2%. In November the index decreased by 5.4%. In the EU27 new orders declined by 6.4% in December 2008, after dropping by 5.1% in November. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders fell by 4.7% in the euro area and by 6.4% in the EU27.

Asking prices in prime London areas increased by 1.2% (GBP16,106) in January, the third successive month of rising values, according to Primelocation.com's latest House Price Index, a unique measure of the Prime market based on a sample of over 62,000 properties in London's most prestigious areas.

In December 2008 the working day and seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a deficit of EUR 7.3 billion. In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment showed net inflows of EUR 1 billion. In 2008 as a whole, the working day-adjusted deficit on the euro area current account amounted to EUR 63.2 billion (about 0.7% of GDP), compared with a surplus of EUR 36.3 billion in 2007. Combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net inflows of EUR 128 billion in 2008, compared with net inflows of EUR 47 billion in 2007, mainly as a result of lower net purchases of foreign debt instruments by euro area residents.