Juncker reveals giant EU investment plan

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has given details of a €315bn (£250bn;$393bn) investment plan to kick-start Europe's economy.

At the heart of his five-year agenda is a new €21bn fund, which would be used as "seed money", to entice private backers to "pitch in" most of the rest.

Only €8bn of the original money would come from the EU budget itself.

The project would take the burden off national governments, already facing big debts after the financial crisis.

"Europe needs a kick-start and today the Commission is providing the jump leads," he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Critics have already suggested that

Philips, Samsung and Infineon in 138m-euro cartel fine

Philips, Samsung and Infineon have been fined 138m euros (£110m; $182m) by the European Commission (EC) for fixing prices of chips in used in smartphones.

The electronics giants "colluded" on pricing, contracts and capacity between 2003 and 2005, the EC said.

Infineon was fined 82.8m euros, Samsung 35.1m euros, and Philips 20.2m euros.

Germany's Infineon and Dutch firm Philips rejected the charge and said they would appeal. South Korea's Samsung had yet to comment.

Renesas, a joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi, avoided a fine for revealing the existence of the cartel, the EC said.

The three fined companies

EU widens aid to dairy exporters hit by Russia food ban

The EU has announced emergency help for dairy producers hit by the Russian ban on food imports from the EU.

The move follows EU aid worth 125m euros (£100m; $170m) announced earlier for fruit and vegetable exporters.

The European Commission will help pay storage costs for butter and skimmed milk powder. EU aid will also extend to certain cheeses. Last year EU cheese sales to Russia were nearly 1bn euros.

Russia's actions in Ukraine triggered the trade dispute.

The biggest EU dairy exporters to Russia in 2013 were: