€1-billion read as one billion euro?

"€1-billion read as one billion euro"
Yes, though I don't understand why they have written it with a dash. Maybe it's how they write it on the continent, in other languages, and used the same format when writing in English.

AUS $10 = ten dollars Australian

"Plus, does 'row hits flagship brain plan' mean 'dispute impacts major brain plan'".
Yes - though, from the opening sentence, means that the headline is misleading!
It was 'changes in scope and focus" that impacted the plan - then a row broke out about those changes!
'flagship' is more than 'major'. It indicates the TOP plan, the best and most important plan of the organisation.
I just bought a new DVD player that Panasonic flaunts as their 2014 flagship player. From a site I could copy and paste from:
"Panasonic ... has announced six new players for 2014. The flagship DMP-BDT700 can process 4K …"
It is their No. 1 blu-ray, 4k, 3D player.

Excellent!

In British (and I believe US) English, expressing that amount of money in words, as the cost of the project, it would the "billion-euro Human Brain Project". If no number is used then "one" is understood. It is customary to use a dash when a number measures something: a ten-ton truck, a half-hour wait, a five-metre rope, a hundred-euro fine, a two-litre bottle, etc. I feel that the typesetter, should have omitted the dash and used "€1 billion project".