European Union News - September 2010

The Open Days, the event which each year brings together representatives and experts from all regions of Europe to discuss issues that affect them most directly, will be held in Brussels between 4 and 7 October. Once more, a series of seminars, workshops and debates will be held this year under the theme "Europe 2020: Competition, cooperation and cohesion for all regions."

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (2001/37/EC), in order to find out possible measures to improve awareness of the dangers of tobacco use, increase motivation to quit and discourage initiation of smoking. Interested parties can submit their opinions and comments to the Commission by 19 November 2010.

The European Commission has adopted a legislative package containing the most comprehensive reinforcement of economic governance in the EU and the Euro area since the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union. These measure aim to enhance surveillance of fiscal policies as well as macroeconomic policies and structural reforms.

The European Commission presented on 29 September its conclusions after the assessment on recent developments in France as well as the discussions about the overall situation of the Roma and the enforcement of EU law on free movement of EU citizens. Infringement procedures could be  initiated in the context of October package if full transposition of Free Movement Directive is not notified.

Young scientists from Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary have been acclaimed as 1st prize winners of the 22nd EU Contest for Young Scientists. Their projects have been selected from 85 projects coming from 37 countries. Second and third prizes as well as the International prize were awarded to 7 other projects, from Poland, Germany, Portugal, Latvia, Italy and Brazil.

Ministers meeting at the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 28 September raised a series of questions relating Commission's communication on the freedom for Member States to decide on the cultivation of genetically modified crops and its compliance with internal market and WTO rules. Among other questions, Ministers also discussed over a proposal for a regulation on distribution of food products for the most deprived persons and specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union.

The European Parliament backed on 28 September a proposal for Directive on single work and residence permit, which will introduce a simplified administrative procedure and equal treatment with national workers on pay, working conditions and social security. This new regulations, drafted in 2007, will complement the blue card provisions.

The European Parliament's vote supporting a new regulation on investigation and prevention of accidents in civil aviation which paves the way to a first reading agreement between Parliament and Council. The new legislation will strengthen the independence and effectiveness of air accident investigations in the EU, promote cooperation between the accident investigation authorities, and ensure better follow-up of safety recommendations.

Twenty five tourist destinations from across Europe were awarded the title of ‘2010 European Destination of Excellence in Aquatic Tourism’ at a Gala Awards ceremony held in Brussels on the European and International Tourism Day.

The networking session on Governmental Linked Data held on 28 September at the “ICT 2010: Digitally Driven” event in Brussels, gathered around 150 European experts from administrations, industry, academia and civil society organizations in order to discuss how public access to government data can be improved, as a key issue for an open and transparent society.

EU-funded researchers led by the University of Southampton in the UK have developed a new data transmission system that could significantly improve the transmission capacity and energy efficiency of the world's optical communication networks.

The European Commission launched on 28 September 2010 one of the biggest calls for proposals ever for information and communications technology (ICT) research. The launch of this call, with a contribution of almost 780 million Euro, was made during the celebration in Brussels of the event ICT 2010-Digitally Driven.