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AMSTERDAM (AP) The European Commission's top competition regulator has unveiled a settlement with five envelope-makers, fining them a total of 19.4 million euros ($24 million) for forming a cartel.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Thursday the fines levied against Sweden's Bong, France's GPV and Hamelin, Germany's Mayer-Kuvert and Spain's Tompla would benefit consumers, including "everyone who is writing Christmas cards."

She may have meant cards of Christmases past: the cartel existed from 2003-2008. Vestager said the companies fixed prices at meetings they sometimes referred to as playing "mini-golf."

Vestager addressed other companies tempted to join a cartel, saying a single tip could launch an investigation, as happened to the envelope cartel.

In that case, the whistleblower didn't send an anonymous letter: "They were too expensive," she quipped.

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European Union licks envelope cartel

Listen The future of the European Union 0sec J. Brian Atwood: Professor and chair of global policy at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs Tom Nuttall: Columnist for The Economist in Brussels

There's a lot of bad news about the future of the European Union: economies still reeling from the recession, rising nationalism, what some think is an unwieldy bureaucracy in Brussels. But what does the future of the EU actually look like?

As the European Council prepares to meet in Brussels next week, we look at the sustainability of the EU.

In Forbes, Robert Kaplan argued he doesn't "believe that the European Union is merely a phase in history:"

J. Brian Atwood, professor and chair of global policy at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, joins The Daily Circuit to discuss the latest.

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What does the European Union's future look like?

EU Children of Peace: Minister Kurz on the education initiative
The EU Children of Peace initiative has had further funding thanks to the the kind contributions of Luxembourg and Austria. Hear from Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz on why it #39;s...

By: European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection

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EU Children of Peace: Minister Kurz on the education initiative - Video

David Cameron tries to worm out of criticising the EU #39;s fisheries policy.
David Cameron is pulled up over the European Union #39;s deadly Fisheries policy, the likes of which Cameron is secretly in favour of, by one of his own Conservative MP #39;s amidst a sea of crumbling...

By: John Moore

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David Cameron tries to worm out of criticising the EU's fisheries policy. - Video

(Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly)

People are seen outside closed stores in the Gambian capital Banjul

The European Union is pulling the plug on funding to Gambia because of concerns about its human rights record amid concerns about the Islamification of the region.

It has withdrawn millions of euros of funding, leaving the mainly Muslim West African nation to rely increasingly on donors from the Middle East for development projects.

The shift in soft power is of concern to Western governments in a region where Islamist militancy in northern Nigeria and northern Mali is fuelling instability, diplomatic sources said.

"West Africa has a large, impressionable youth population that have no access to jobs. Their loyalty might be bought through aid, sometimes by those sympathetic to the Islamification of the region," said one diplomat.

Gambia was criticized by the United Nations Human Rights Council in October for restricting freedom of expression and numerous other rights violations.

In November, Gambia cut off dialogue with the European Union after President Yahya Jammeh returned from a visit to Qatar.

The EU decided unanimously in December that systematic abuse of human rights amounted to contravention of the Cotonou Agreement, an international accord that stipulates that aid can be delivered only in return for progress in human rights.

It took the decision weeks after Jammeh signed into law an act that could imprison homosexuals for life. There followed a crackdown on gays and lesbians, causing many to hide or flee into neighboring Senegal.

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While the EU pulls funds from Gambia over its human rights record, the Middle East steps in