European Union News - August 2011

With the help of European funds, a team of German and Italian scientists has developed a new research with peptides that act by a novel inhibitory mechanism and curb cancer cell growth in drug resistant ovarian cancer cells. The scientists point their research will go a long way to helping the some 200,000 women who are diagnosed annually worldwide with ovarian cancer.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank has made a statement after the recent developments with regard to the tensions happened in some financial markets in the euro area. The President of the ECB reaffirmed what the Governing Council agreed on the 4 of August, its support to the economies of the euro area.

The European Commission welcomed the Russian competent authorities decision to cancel the temporary import requirements for fresh EU vegetables. This decision is taken following the epidemiological evidence that the E.coli infection was over.

A team of EU-funded scientists from Spain and France has developed a new method of magnetic data writing. This study proposes to eliminates the need for cumbersome magnetic fields and provides extremely simple and reversible writing of memory elements, by injecting an electric current parallel to the plane of a magnetic bit. The researchers team outline how their method could help tackle problems for physicists and engineers as well as meet changing market requirements.

The Joint Research Center through its Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) developed a software package to improve its oil pollution detection system. This software will supplied the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in order to help Member States authorities to improve their response and prevention activities to pollution from ships.

The TAKE CARE ("Strategies towards responsible alcohol consumption for adolescents in Europe") project has reached the practical phase. First pilot trainings with adolescents took already place in the individual countries. The project counts with EU funds.

The European Commission has opened formal anti-trust proceedings to investigate an alleged refusal by several luxury watch manufacturers to supply spare parts to independent repairers. These proceedings does not imply that the Commission has conclusive proof of an infringement. It only means that the Commission will investigate the case as a matter of priority.

The new information service online for those affected by cancer has just been launched. The aim of the site is to create a single place where patients, health care professionals, researchers and policymakers can all come together to interact, discuss, debate and build knowledge.

The European Commission proposed to allocate €370.1 million to Member States for actions in the field of border management and visa policy in 2012 under the External Borders Fund. The funds will support investments in Member States and non-EU countries participating in Schengen, in particular those most affected by increased migratory pressures.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EU published two special reports which highlights that the current drought in the Greater Horn of Africa is creating the most serious food insecurity situation in the world.

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has decided to conduct a liquidity-providing supplementary longer-term refinancing operation (LTRO) with a maturity of approximately six months, given the renewed tensions in some financial markets in the euro area. In addition, the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged.

Europeans are starting to be more confident about the economy according to the Spring 2011 Eurobarometer. The bi-annual opinion poll organised by the European Union shows that 43% of Europeans think that the crisis’s impact on the job market has already reached its peak, which means one percentage point more than in the previous survey in autumn 2010. Europeans are also increasingly asking for EU action and stronger European cooperation to tackle the crisis and avoid future problems.