EU law-making is on the line as the European Investment Bank comes out fighting against US financial regulation.

You might think that, after the financial crisis of 2007-08, all major public institutions, and in particular those dealing with finance and monetary issues, would be focused on preventing such systemic crises happening again.

Supporting the infant steps being made to regulate financial markets as well as shrinking their involvement in shadow-banking practices in the name of financial and social stability: these, you would think, would be prudent goals for significant public financial institutions.

This, though, is not the case with one of the major European financial institutions: the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The EU-US passenger name record (PNR) agreement is set to top next week's Strasbourg plenary agenda.

Parliament's political groups vote on Thursday on new rules to govern the transfer of EU air passengers' personal data to the US authorities, with the majority of groups saying further discussions are needed.

MEPs are expected to urge the European commission to increase monitoring of internet censorship by autocratic regimes on Tuesday and call for a better enforcement of children's rights and more cooperation with the international criminal court.

Newly elected president of the European parliament's GUE/NGL group Gabi Zimmer has called for the EU to put social protection and solidarity ahead of the euro.

Zimmer, an MEP since 2004, replaces former GUE/NGL group chair Lothar Bisky, who retired last week for health reasons, with the new president praising Bisky's role in the European left and in German post-reunification politics.

Zimmer told reporters in the European parliament on Friday that although there is "no alternative to the EU", the way the 27 member state bloc is conducting its affairs is "wrong".

"We mustn't just see the EU in economic terms. We need social consideration and solidarity. We must look to the citizens," said the German deputy.

Zimmer said that the GUE/NGL group would be pushing for "social systems that deliver more rights and solidarity", adding that "the policy of the EU should be to put the people first and then the euro".

Global financial regulators have failed to create clear standards for banks, meaning lenders are hoarding cash instead of providing loans needed to drive growth, European Banking Federation President Christian Clausen said.

"This is the biggest change in the banking system ever seen; all items in the balance sheet are in play," Clausen said in an interview in Stockholm yesterday. "The incentive for banks, even though they have built up their capital, to actually go out and support good initiatives is very limited."

Since the 2008 global financial crisis routed markets, sent unemployment soaring and some governments toppling, policy makers have looked for ways to guard against a repeat of the turmoil by requiring banks to build up bigger buffers. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision wants lenders to target core capital of at least 7 percent of their risk-weighted assets, compared with as little as 2 percent before the crisis. The European Banking Authority has set a temporary 9 percent target for some lenders.

The European Central Bank will restart its controversial government bond purchases rather than offer banks another round of unlimited three-year loans as the sovereign debt crisis worsens, a survey of economists shows.

Of 22 economists polled this week, 17 predicted the ECB will be forced to resume the Securities Markets Program (ECBCSMP), while only one forecast it will offer another batch of three-year cash. Nine said the central bank may consider shorter maturity loans of one or two years.

"Market stresses will eventually force the ECB to restart the bond program, but it's not imminent," said Ken Wattret, chief euro-area economist at BNP Paribas in London, who participated in the survey conducted April 11-12. "Trying to get consensus on the council for it will be difficult."

While ordinary Spaniards cope with harsh austerity, recession and soaring unemployment, the country's royal family has been enjoying expensive hunting trips, one of which resulted in King Juan Carlos ending up in hospital.

The 74-year-old monarch's fall in a park in Botswana provided an excuse for Spanish newspapers, who normally treat their royal family with kid gloves, to plaster their pages with photos of the king standing proudly in front of a dead elephant.