European Union News - September 2009

The European Commission declared on September 3rd 2009 its support for a new Global Framework for Climate Services that is being discussed at the 3rd World Climate Conference (WCC-3) in Geneva. Proposed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the purpose is to obtain more scientifically reliable data and prediction systems for climate forecasting.

The President of the European Commission has sent the President of the European Parliament a document which specifies the objectives that he believes should guide the partnerships between the Commission and Parliament during the next 5 years. It says that "Europe is facing stark choices in today's interdependent world. Either we work together to rise to the challenges. Or we condemn ourselves to irrelevance. I will redouble my efforts to make an ambitious Europe happen. A Europe that puts people at the heart of the policy agenda and projects European values and interests in the world. A Europe that nurtures new sources of growth and drives forward smart regulation of sound markets that work for people. A Europe of freedom and solidarity."

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation under the EU Merger Regulation into the planned acquisition of US hardware and software vendor Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, a US database and application software company. Commission has shown its concern about the implications over competition between Oracle databases and Sun's MySQL, and will now have 90 working days, until January 19th 2010, to take a final decision.

At the informal finance ministers’ lunch meeting in Brussels on September 3rd, ministers of finance from the 27 Member States agreed on common EU positions on the key issues to be discussed at the upcoming G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh, including financial market reform, strengthening international financial institutions, and combating climate change. Among the priority objectives of the Union is to end the "old culture" on bonus compensations to executives in the financial sector.

The European Union invested up to 6.8 M€ for academic cooperation with industrialised countries in North America, through its longstanding cooperation with the US and Canada. Under this cooperation scheme, de Commission has announced the launch of 33 new and innovative projects involving universities and training institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

 Aid for private storage of butter and skimmed milk powder should be prolonged to help farmers through the current crisis. Agriculture Committee MEPs gave their go ahead on Wednesday to a Commission proposal to prolong intervention periods for the butter and milk powder market until February next year.

Today the Commission launched a proposal to create a "Joint EU Resettlement Programme" in order to protect refugees through cooperation between Member States. The aim of this programme is to relocate refugees from the first place of asylum to a country where protection is ensured and where they can develop their lives. This is the most viable solution for those who are unable to return to their country of origin, which are Asia, Africa or the Middle East in most cases.

The national winners of the European Union prize for Young Journalists will travel to Berlin to begin the journey of award and attend the final conference in celebration of their success and, while looking back over the past 20 years since the fall of Berlin Wall. The European Young Journalist Award is one of the biggest competitions pan-European level of this type. The competition was open to young writers between 17 and 35 years of EU Member States and candidate and potential candidates, and this year over 600 projects have been received.

The EU is phasing out traditional light bulbs over the next three years in favour of a new generation of energy-efficient lighting. Under new rules coming into force in September, manufacturers and importers can no longer sell clear incandescent light bulbs of 100 watts or above in the EU. However, shops may continue to sell bulbs already in stock.

Swedish government ministers have outlined their Council Presidency priorities to the committees on constitutional affairs, climate change, international trade and gender equality. Further presentations will be made to other committees this week, now that MEPs have returned from their holidays.

The European Commission is who is organizing the third edition of this competition aimed at secondary schools. Candidates for the prize, the Juvenes Translatores, can test their skills by translating a text into a language of their choice, in order to obtain a prize. The registration period is open until 20th October.
 

Reporting in the journal Science, researchers from the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) describe the challenges facing science teachers in European schools and explain how their programme addresses the problem.