The EU has confirmed that Europe's highest court will rule on the legality of the controversial anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (Acta).

European trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Tuesday that the European court of justice would be asked to assess whether Acta "is incompatible - in any way - with the EU's fundamental rights and freedoms".

This will include freedom of expression, data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property, he said.

Supporters argue that the agreement will help tackle piracy and illegal file sharing online, but there have been public demonstrations across Europe amid concerns over freedom of information on the internet.

Parliament's rapporteur on Acta, British MEP David Martin, welcomed the decision, describing it as an admission by De Gucht that "there are still many question marks about Acta and what the implementation of the agreement, as it stands, would mean for citizens and for the freedom of the internet".

A conference in Brussels was told that many companies 'don't help themselves' when it comes to combating piracy and counterfeiting.

The two-day conference, organised by the European commission, heard that 'financial incentives' could be offered to enterprises to help them deal with the growing problem of fake goods.

A scheme, piloted in Italy, was cited as an example of 'best practice' in tackling counterfeiting and also raising public awareness of the problem.

The initiative cited at the conference on Tuesday has been piloted by the Italian intellectual property office.

Gianluca Scarponi, representing the organisation, said, "What happens is that we make them an offer they can't refuse use the capital generated from applications for patents and designs and, basically, give it back to enterprises."

We apologize... normal service resumed asap etc...

Despite plenty of transatlantic tensions over the eurozone debt crisis, US President Barack Obama phoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel to congratulate her on concluding a new Greek bailout deal.

The White House said late Tuesday that "the president thanked the chancellor for her leadership and welcomed last night's agreement in Europe on a new rescue programme for Greece to help reduce its debt to sustainable levels."

"The president and chancellor agreed that the planned EU fiscal pact, recent actions by the European Central Bank and reforms by Spain and Italy have also been positive steps in addressing the eurozone crisis," White House spokesman Jay Carney added.

But back home the reaction to the new €130 billion Greek bailout deal, agreed by the eurozone's finance ministers Tuesday morning, has been less friendly.

Prominent Merkel-ally Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy parliamentary leader in the chancellor's Christian Democratic Union, has already announced that he would not vote for the new package.

"We're marching with great strides towards a union of liability, and we're burdening future generations with risks that I find unjustifiable," he told the Passauer Neue Presse.

The truth is no one really believes in this illusory firewall which sacrifices intellect on the altar of imagination. If they did, the European Union would not have decided to grant yet another colossal loan to Greece on 21 February, and there would be no talk of a new federal EU architecture, with nation states handing over more sovereignty to a European government. Progress has been slow, no one has tackled the crux of the problem (the issue of the EU resources required to conduct an effective investment programme).

At times you could be forgiven for thinking that the governments of "major" countries are waiting for Greece to go bankrupt before building the Union they want to construct. This is the thesis advanced by economist Kenneth Rogoff, in an interview with Spiegel: once Athens has been expelled from the union, the impetus of the crisis can be used to accelerate the construction of a United States of Europe. But can a new union be built on the ashes of Greece? And what kind of union would we have had without the pressure of the Greek crisis?

As a `coalition of the unwilling' meets in Moscow to debate retaliatory measures against the EU's inclusion of airlines in the Emissions Trading System (ETS), a senior Airbus executive has warned of a `trade war'.

"Certain countries are opposing ETS which could cause manufacturing industries problems in terms of future orders and you can see the potential for a trade war, specifically with the Chinese," said Paul Nash, head of environmental affairs for Airbus.

"We're obviously concerned because the big growth industries today are Asia and South America so it could certainly impact us," he told EurActiv.

But industry opinions are divided between short-haul companies that may charge customers as little as 30 cents a flight to compensate for carbon charges and long-haul carriers, which the EU says may pass on ticket price hikes of between €2 and €12, despite one US government-funded report predicting a potential €2 billion windfall from the ETS for airlines.

"We rather regret the turn this [Moscow meeting] is taking because there are moves within the International Civil Air Organisation to find alternative market-based mechanisms," said John Hanlon, the secretary-general of the European Low Fares Airline Association.

"My understanding is that the Commission would be prepared to amend their legislation providing these alternatives achieved the same carbon reductions," he added. "The noises offstage are unwelcome and obstructive to that process."

Berlin says it does not want to discuss the merger  of EFSF funds and the ESM; Angela Merkel does not want any complications that might get in the way of the Bundestag's approval of the Greek programme; there is no likelihood now of a summit agreement on an EFSF/ESM merger, but Germany remains willing to talk abou this later in March;the Dutch have changed position, and now support the merger; Agustin Carstens calls for more rescue efforts, as a pre-condition for more IMF help;says a merger of EFSF and ESM would not be enough; CACs are approved by Greek parliamentary committee, and to be voted on by the full parliament later today; Antonis Samaris invites outsted MPs back in if they support reform programme; the Dutch finance minister expressed doubts about the Greek progamme; Clive Crook argues that the Greek deal will not stop the confidence crisis; Germany's tax revenues slow considerably in December; Werner Mussler says France will be the litmus test of the new EU budget rules; Wolfgang Proissl calls on Draghi and Weidman to repeat a Trichet-Weber type confrontation; Nomura explains the broken monetary transmission channel; a BIS study establishes a Reinhart-Rogoff type debt rule for the private sector; Wolfgang Munchau says it is ultimately not in Germany's interest to run excessive and persistent trade surpluses; Sebastian Dullien and Ulrike Guerot argue that the Germans are digging in over austerity, and the best way to coopt Germany is to advocate EU-level investment programmes, and a shift in taxation power to Brussels.