European Union News - September 2009

Under the slogan “Eat it, Drink it, Move it” three roadshows will tour seven European countries, giving children a chance to take part in educational activities and games. The European Commission also launched an interactive website, competitions and other events with one key goal in mind – to change children’s eating habits for the better.

To cope with the economic crisis, innovation is emerging as a feasible mean of recovery. In fact, is one of the points that takes into account the Lisbon Strategy. Therefore, the Council met on 24 and 25 September and discussed the innovation policy of the EU.

The ten nominations for this year's Sakharov Prize, the EP's prize for defenders of human rights and democracy, have now been put forward and will be officially presented at the end of the month at a joint meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Development Committee and the Human Rights Subcommittee. The winner will be chosen on 22 October and the prize will be ceremonially awarded mid-December.

The European Commission has published two calls for proposals in the Official Journal of the EU with a total budget of 10 million. The calls relate, first, to support the development of production projects, and secondly, to support the development of interactive works on platforms online or offline

The Swedish Presidency of the EU and the European Commission have called on international negotiators to make decisive progress towards an ambitious global climate change agreement at two weeks of world climate talks in Bangkok starting on 28 September. The Bangkok meeting is the penultimate preparatory session before the Copenhagen U.N. climate conference in December at which the global deal is due to be concluded.

The European Commission has published two calls for proposals for MEDIA 2007 to support the European audiovisual sector. The first (EACEA/23/09) concerns audiovisual festivals which take place in countries benefiting from this program and the second (EACEA/18/09) to development, distribution, promotion and training in the sector.

"Culture in motion" conference and European Culture Forum will congregate in Brussels hundreds of people from all over the world in order to examine past, present and future of culture projects in the EU. During the Culture in motion conference, winners for the EU Prize for Literature will be presented.

Events all over Europe will take place on September 25th night because of the Researchers' night, an initiative by the European Commission that offers the public a unique opportunity to discover the world of research during one evening. This is the fifth year that researchers celebrate it.

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities has published data on language learning of students and perceived language skills of adults. In the EU in 2007, 60% of students in upper secondary education studied two or more foreign languages and one third studied one foreign language, while 6% did not study any foreign language. English is the most studied foreign language in upper secondary education and the most commonly spoken foreign language among adults aged 25 to 64 years, except for  Ireland and the United Kingdom , where French is most common.

The Council welcomed the Commission's recent communication on a joint EU resettlement programme and a related proposal amending a Council decision on the European Refugee Fund (ERF) for the period 2008 to 2013. Ministers broadly supported the idea of moving towards a joint EU resettlement programme.

 Building on the success of its pilot project launched in 2001, the European Commission has now decided to extend its environmental management system to all its activities and buildings in Brussels and Luxembourg. With this certification scheme the Commission implements a system that defines and evaluates environmental aspects of its activities, leading to continuous improvements in areas such as increased energy efficiency, optimal use of natural resources and reduction of CO 2 emissions.

The Section for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure of the EESC (European Economic and Social) has organized the event Save it! Energy Efficiency Days, held in Brussels between 22 and 25 September as a prelude to the "Overshoot Day", an international day established in 1987 to raise awareness about the problem of ecological deficit, and which marks the day when humanity starts using more natural resources than the planet can produce in a sustainable way every year.