European Union News - May 2009

One fifth of Europe’s reptiles and nearly a quarter of its amphibians are threatened, according to new studies commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by IUCN which will be presented on World Biodiversity Day. Most of the pressure on these declining species comes from mankind's destruction of their natural habitats, combined with climate change, pollution and the presence of invasive species.

 The Polish youth project "YOUrope needs YOU" was awarded the first prize in the European Charlemagne Youth Prize (ECYP) competition on 19 May in Aachen. Through a series of high school workshops run by university students, this project uses informal methods to convey to teenagers interesting facts about Europe. The second and the third prize went to the "European Festival of university theatre of Albi" (France) and to "Gumboot Diplomacy" (Germany) respectively.

The Directorate-General for Energy and Transport (European Comisión) has launched a call for tender for receiving support to Galileo standardisation.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on May 20th 2009 a prior notification of a concentration between the companies Météo-France, CDC, NYSE Euronext and MetNext. Interested parties may submit their views to the Commission about this operation within ten days after this publication.

The European Commission has published, for public consultation, draft Guidelines on the application of EU state aid rules to public funding of broadband networks. The main issue at stake concerns public financing of very high speed, so-called "next generation access networks". Member States and stakeholders can submit their views on the proposed text by June 22nd 2009. Further to this consultation, and taking into account its results, Commission will issue the definitive Broadband Guidelines later this year.

In its report, Commission concludes that figures for the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) of the Community Network for the epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in 2006 and 2007 confirm previous years' trends, as the number and typology of messages notified were comparable to 2004 and 2005. ‘Information level’ messages accounted for most of the EWRS messages.

The Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate has Published last 19 may 2009 a call for tender for the Leader + 'Ex post' evaluation

The European Commission launched on may 19th a call for proposals covering key energy infrastructure projects such as energy interconnections, offshore wind energy and carbon capture and storage as part of the implementation of the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR), on which the Council and the Parliament recently reached agreement. Project promoters are invited to submit their proposals by July 15th 2009.

The European Commission organises a personal data use and protection conference to look at new challenges for privacy. Interested individuals, business leaders, consumer associations, academics, data protection supervisors and public authorities from both the EU and third countries are invited to take part.

Between 4 and 7 June, 375 million citizens across 27 countries, from Helsinki to Lisbon, from Dublin to Vilnius, are called to the polls to elect the European Parliament. In a video message posted on his website, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, urges people to turn out and vote.

In its meeting in Luxembourg 06 April 2009 the Council of the European Union, Justice and Home Affairs, adopted a decision transforming Europol into an EU agency from 01 January 2010. The new agency will have its seat in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Director-General of EuropeAid Co-operation Office, Koos Richelle, signed, on behalf of the European Commission, on May 15th 2009, the first contribution agreements of the Food Facility with three UN implementing partners: FAO (€106M), UNRWA (€ 39.6M) and UNICEF (€8.2M). Similar contribution agreements with the World Food Programme (€38.7M), and UNOPS (€ 10M) are expected to be finalised shortly, to be followed by agreements with the World Bank, IFAD and UNDP.