European Union News - August 2009

Europe will come to 500 million, thanks in part to migration and an increase in the number of births while the rate of deaths has remained stable. All EU countries except Germany, have seen their birth rate increase, particularly Lithuania, Poland and Ireland.

The European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005: 56% of Europeans now regularly use the internet, 80% of them via a high-speed connection (compared to only one third in 2004), making Europe the world leader in broadband internet.

The journal Science published a study by researchers from United Kingdom and Spain and financed from EU funds concludes that ecological restoration in areas of high environmental degradation can help stop the loss of global biodiversity. Also showed that the conservation work that are most effective when the restoration is intended to ensure the quality of "ecosystem services" such as drinking water, food production and carbon storage.

The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) handles over 62.000 contacts with EU consumers who turn to them for advice or for help with problems affecting cross-border shopping, both in person and online. The European Commission supports the network and has published the ECC-Net Annual Report for 2008, which saw a 22% increase in the number of Consumers turning to them directly for help. In 2008 most complaints tackled by ECCs concerned transport (33%, of which 80% related to air transport), recreational services (25%) and hotels and restaurants (13%).

The European Commission has published several calls for proposals in various thematic areas of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), under three of the specific programmes that develop it: Cooperation, Capacities and Ideas. 

Following the measures adopted in the field of maritime safety, the European Commission has set up the High Level Steering Group on SafeSeaNet, whose creation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU on August 1st, 2009. Chaired by the European Commission and integrated by representatives from all Member States, the Group will support the development of SafeSeaNet system.

In the framework of the ESPON 2013 programme, calls for proposals and expression of interest will be launched on 16 September 2009. ESPON is an initiative that aims to study the conditions for the development of several areas in the EU. The calls will reflect priorities 1 to 4 of the programme.
 

While the U.S. lost 5 bags per thousand passengers in Europe this number shoots up to fourteen per thousand passengers. Therefore, the European Union is studying the need for rules at European level to solve this problem that involves substantial cost and disruption to both businesses and travelers.