European Union News - 15 June 2011

According to Eurostat, forests cover around 40% of the EU27 land area and half the EU27 consumption of renewable energy comes from wood. In the European Union, three quarters of forest area was available for wood supply in 2010. Furthermore, renewable sources of energy provided 9% of total gross inland energy consumption in the EU in 2009.

The approved 2010 activity report highlighted that protecting the environment and standing up for citizens’ rights are the major goals of the EP Petitions Committee. MEPs also call for a dedicated web portal to be set up for petitions and for the committee to play a key role in dealing with citizens' initiatives.

EU27 Member States granted citizenship to 776,000 persons in 2009. One year before, it was granted to 699,000 persons. The new citizens came mainly from Africa, Asia and non-EU27 Europe. The main contribution to this increase came from the United Kingdom and was a consequence of the unusually low number of citizenships that, for purely administrative reasons, the United Kingdom granted in 2008.

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee met on 14 of June with Mario Draghi, candidate designate for the European Central Bank presidency. Mr. Draghi explained to the Committee that the ECB must not be diverted from its primary goal of price stability and he assures to the MEPs that he would use the European Parliament venue to strengthen the ECB's accountability to citizens.

The proposal presented by the Commission would replace the current Directive (2004/40/EC) and it is aimed to revamp rules to protect EU workers from harmful electromagnetic fields. More specifically, this proposal is aimed to protect workers like doctors and nurses giving patients magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI), people working with radar, welders and workers reparing power lines.