European Union News - 08 February 2012

Member States informed about progress achieved in key areas such as the progress on access to credits and simplification initiatives, at the second meeting of the Network of SME Envoys celebrated in Luxembourg and chaired by the EU SME Envoy, Mr Daniel Calleja Crespo.

In order to make easier for foundations to support public benefit causes across the EU, the Commission has presented a proposal for a European Foundation Statute. On this way, it can be created a single European legal form - the ‘European Foundation’ (FE) – which would be fundamentally the same in all Member States and would exist in parallel with domestic foundations.

New EU rules for “organic wine”, which will be published in the Official Journal, have been agreed in the Standing Committee on Organic Farming (SCOF). Thus, the term “organic wine” will be allowed to use by organic wine growers on the labels. In addition, the labels must also show the EU-organic-logo and the code number of their certifier.

Eurostat published the latest figures on the risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU which show, among other findings, that in 2010 27% of children aged below 18 were affected by at least one of the three forms of poverty or social exclusion. In addition, the figures also show that 16% of the population in the EU were at risk of income poverty in 2010.

The Joint Research Centre published a report which shows that Member States plan to reach an overall share of 20.7% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. Even more, Member States are planning to exceed their own targets and will therefore be able to provide surpluses for other Member States.

MEPs at the Industry Committee want to prolong the European Network and Information Security Agency mandate further than 2013. The reason behind the extension is that ENISA can help the EU, Member States and private stakeholders to develop their capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to network and information security problems and incidents.