European Union News - September 2011

The Court of Justice of the EU expressed its views on the case of an Italian MEP who is charged with the offence of making false accusations against a public official in the performance of her duties. The Court highlights that immunity may not be granted unless there is an obvious, direct link between the opinion expressed by the MEP and the performance of his parliamentary duties. In addition, it falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the national court hearing the case.

Two major EU-funded nuclear waste-disposal projects have allowed researchers to reach a consensus on several key issues surrounding the chemical durability of both high-level waste glass and spent nuclear fuel, thanks to the publication of their results.

The new draft report on the Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area has been discussed in the Transport Committee at the European Parliament. The draft report builds on the Commission white paper on EU transport policy from now to 2050 and it sets realistic targets for 2020 according to MEPs.
 

36 mayors and regional politicians from the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine inaugurated on 8 of September the new platform set up by the EU Committee of the Regions, the Conference of regional and local authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP).

The result of a public consultation to which nearly 200 organisations and individuals responded shows that higher education, research and business organisations strongly support the mission of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). In addition, the respondents considere that the EIT should play a distinctive role in 'Horizon 2020', the future EU Programme for Research and Innovation, and forge closer links with other European and national efforts.

The European Commission adopted the first measure to ensure that by 2015 that the life-saving eCall system will be fitted to all new models of cars and light vehicles. The measure consisted in a Recommendation which urges Member States to ensure that mobile phone network operators upgrade their infrastructure so that eCalls are efficiently passed on to emergency services.

The EU and US signed an agreement known as IUU fishing to strengthen bilateral cooperation to combat illegal fishing. This statement is the first of its kind in the longstanding partnership between the EU and the US on fisheries management. They have agreed that the seafood they import from each other will not be caught illegally.

The European Commission adopted a Communication on security of energy supply and international cooperation. According to the Commission, this Communication sets out for the first time a comprehensive strategy for the EU's external relations in energy which has as main goal to improve coordination among EU Member States in such field.

European scientists have identified two new genes connected with hereditary renal diseases with a new way of studying networks of proteins, combining systems biology and biochemistry. This study moves forward gene research by taking this innovative network approach. Moreover, this method could also be used to find genes for more common diseases such as diabetes or obesity.

According to the ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union, EU law can prevent transferred workers, even those employed by a public authority of a Member State and taken over by another public authority, from suffering a substantial reduction in salary by reason only of the transfer.

As one of the priorities for the Polish Presidency of the European Union, participants in the Conference on Shared Responsibility organised by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the Responsible Business Forum tried to provide answers to the question on how to increase the presence and efficiency of CSR in the European Union. The conference was held at the Polish Baltic Fryderyk Chopin Philharmonic in Gdańsk on 5th September 2011.

Flash estimate for the second quarter of 2011 showed an increase of Gross Domestic Product both in the Euro are and the European Union as a whole of 0.2% and 1.6% respectively, compared with the second quarter of 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, growth rates were +0.8% in the euro area and +0.7% in the EU.