- The High Representative for Foreign Affairs secures a deal with the European Parliament on the institutional setup of the new European External Action Service, the EU's diplomatic body intended to strengthen Europe's voice in international negotiations with streamlined, common European foreign policy goals
- The European Union creates a European Financial Stability Facility in response to the looming sovereign debt crisis of seeveral member states, enabling member states to guarantee their bonds with the full weight of the bloc, thus lowering the interest rates at which these can be placed on the market, alongside other mechannisms aiming to stabilize the single currency
- The Lisbon Treaty enters into force after an almost 10 year-long struggle to provide the enlarged bloc with a new, more dynamic and more democratic set-up, which includes obligatory parliamentary approval for almost any policy field, and far more majority voting within the European Council as opposed to vetoing
- The European Space Agency sends the resupply spacecraft Jules Verne to the International Space Station.
- The European Commission fines Microsoft US$1.44 billion for non-compliance with a 2004 antitrust ruling, the largest penalty the EU has ever imposed on a single company.
- Hungary agrees to join the South Stream gas pipeline project. (Reuters)
- Kosovo's parliament endorses a unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia and adopts a flag (pictured); response from the international community is mixed.
- The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announces plans to nationalise the Northern Rock bank following credit problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis.
