European Union News - 07 May 2008

The European Commission decided on the 7th May 2008 to lodge a case to the Court of Justice over the incorrect transposition by Poland into its national law of EU legislation on the Community system to monitor the traffic of ships in EU waters.

The European Commission concluded, on the 7th May 2008, that Slovakia meets the criteria for adopting the euro and made a proposal to the Council to this effect. The regular Convergence Report on euro readiness, adopted by the Commission, shows that another nine countries, that were investigated, with a so-called 'derogation' have made progress on the road to the single currency, but do not yet meet all the conditions for euro adoption.

In the Official Jounral of the European Union (OJ), a decision dated the 7th of May 2008 has been published concerned with the setting up the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry which will be functioning until the 1st November 2009.

The European Commission, through the The Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), have organised a Call for applications from individual experts for technical assistance to third countries in the area of humanitarian aid.

60 Heads of State and Government from the EU Member States, Latin America and the Caribbean will gather in Lima, Peru, on May the 16th for the V EU-LAC Summit. The EU and Latin American and Caribbean leaders will debate two key themes for the bi-regional agenda: poverty reduction and social cohesion; and environment, climate change and sustainable development.

On the 7th of May 2008, the European Commission have published noticies from Member states in the Offical Jounral of the European Union (OJ). Information communicated by Member States was regarding State aid granted under Commission
Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production of agricultural products and amending Regulation (EC) No 70/2001.

On 24 April 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration by which the undertaking Nokia Corporation (‘Nokia’, Finland) acquires control of the whole of the undertaking Trolltech ASA (‘Trolltech’, Norway) by way of a public bid announced on 28 January 2008.

The European Commission is sending nine Member States first written warnings for failing to issue new or updated permits for over 9,000 industrial installations already in operation across Europe. These Member States did not satisfactorily issue these permits by the 30 October 2007 deadline.

A Spanish student wanted to start her university studies in Belgium, but was refused because the original certified diploma of her secondary education had not been issued yet by the Spanish authorities. SOLVIT persuaded the university to accept other evidence so that she would not miss an entire academic year. A British manufacturer of marine radio equipment was asked by the German authorities to retest its products in Germany even though they had already been tested and placed on the market in other EU Member States. SOLVIT intervened to ensure that the products could be sold in Germany without costly retesting.