GIVE WILLIAM Hague credit for one thing: at least he seems to be talking about the real issues in the European elections. Labour seems to be relying on Tony Blair's turbo-charged popularity, while the Liberal Democrats are running on anything but their status as the most pro-European of the main parties. The Tory leader is now talking about renegotiating the treaties of the European Union. He is profoundly wrong, and he is playing havoc with Tory Party unity, but he is not daft. At the Cologne summit at the weekend, Europe's leaders agreed that there would have to be treaty amendments to rejig the EU's decision-making systems to cope with the accession of Cyprus, the Czechs, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, and then Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.

A new 'chartered directors' qualification aims to improve expertise and integrity.

CHARITABLE DONATIONS in the UK have declined by a third in real terms since 1993, and the steepest decline in giving is among young people.

Letter:

THE PROBLEM of boardroom pay getting disconnected from fairness is endemic in much of British business, according to Tony Morgan, chief executive of the Industrial Society, writes Roger Trapp.

Sir: I was interested to see that you placed a story on the English regions immediately below one on voting reform (12 May).

Despite their growing numbers, female superiors are unpopular with both sexes. But are they being judged fairly?

TRADE DISPUTES are curious things. In a world where everyone is meant to believe in free trade, they are often over relatively arcane, trivial issues - bananas and now hormone-injected beef. Generally there is a little bit of right on both sides.

Directors are more confident

YOU'VE GOT chartered accountants, chartered surveyors, even chartered arbitrators. Now please welcome chartered directors.

Ruth Lea, 51, read economics and statistics at York and Bristol before joining the Civil Service. In 1988, she became senior economist, then chief economist, at Mitsubishi Bank. She left to join Lehman Brothers, then spent a year as ITN's economics editor. She was appointed head of policy unit at the Institute of Directors in 1995

Business leaders expect blueprint for stability and enterprise

You don't have to be joined at the hip to have a happy relationship. URSULA KENNY meets two couples who thrive on being free agents

TONY BLAIR set Britain firmly on course to join the single European currency yesterday by unveiling a fast-track timetable that would start soon after the next general election.