European Union News - 04 June 2010

A Joint Parliamentary Meeting has been organised by the European Parliament and the Spanish Parliament (Cortes Generales) on the topic, 'Towards a European Energy Community for the 21st Century?'.

From 9-11 June, stakeholders interested in the ongoing preparations of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region will meet in Constanta, Romania to discuss the strategy's potential priority areas for action.

The European Commission has launched Scientix, a new web-portal targeted towards teachers, researchers, policy makers, local actors, parents and anyone interested in science education. Scientix will give access to teaching materials, research results and policy documents from European science education projects financed by the European Union and by various national initiatives.

The Council adopted aswell an action plan for unaccompanied minors arriving illegally in the European Union. The objective is to set common standards for receiving them, legal guardianship, identifying them, tracking down their families and repatriating them.

EU proposes new rules across Europe to monitor the credit rating agencies and opens a public debate on the management of financial institutions.

Companies from the UK, Belgium, Germany and Spain have won the 2010 European Business Awards for the Environment. The awards recognise "the best of the best" businesses that have already succeeded in competitions at national level.