European Union News - March 2012

The First Smart Mobility Challenge on European multi-modal journey planners has already its winners. Particularly, in the category of 'operational journey planners' the two winners are Idos and Trenitalia, and in the category of 'innovative ideas' the winners are Penelope Ventures GmbH and SNCF. With this initiative, the Commission intends to promote the development of all-in-one journey planners.

The European Commission proposed new rules that intend to enhance the ability of Member States to confiscate assets that have been transferred to third parties, it will make it easier to confiscate criminal assets even when the suspect has fled and will ensure that competent authorities can temporarily freeze assets that risk disappearing if no action is taken.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €200 million loan to the Castilla y León Region to finance its investment in RDI, heritage conservation and educational and social facilities. The loan's main advantage is its maturity of up to 20 years, which is far longer than the average currently offered by commercial banks.

The European Commission has presented a new proposal on accounting of greenhouse gases emissions in the forest and agriculture sectors. According to the Commission, this is the first step towards incorporating removals and emissions from forests and agriculture into the EU's climate policy.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup, welcomed in a statement the significant progress achieved in the preparation of the second Greek adjustment programme, but it urges the Greek authorities to continue demonstrating strong commitment and to keep up the implementation momentum by rigorously pursuing the adjustment effort, strictly in line with the new programme. The Eurogroup considers that the necessary conditions are in place to launch the relevant national procedures required for the final approval of the euro area's contribution to the financing of the second Greek adjustment programme.

COTER, the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy of the Committee of the Regions showed its support to the European Commission proposal for revising the TEN-T legislative framework. However this Commission also considers that the governance should be improved in a way to ensure a greater involvement of regional and local authorities.

Although 26 Member States could agree on the final compromise text with regard to a proposes roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050, Poland could not accept the provisions regarding the milestones for EU domestic emission reductions and further work on the 2030 milestone. Therefore, Poland blocked Council conclusions on this topic for the second time.

On 11 March 2012 the European Union commemorates the 8th European Day in Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism and EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström stressed that is a time for commemoration and remembrance, a time for solidarity and encouragement. Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter-terrorism coordinator highlighted that more has to be done to make the voices of victims heard in public and to devote more attention to victims, their families, friends and relatives and less to the perpetrators.

The European Water Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary at the same time as the international community can celebrate that the Millennium Development Goal on sustainable access to drinking water has been achieved, five years before the deadline of 2015. So, the EU helped more than 32 million people to gain access to improved water supply and 9 million to sanitation facilities.

The European citizens that living and working in another Member State other than their own, around 8 million people of voting age, are still facing obstacles to vote or stand as a candidate in local elections in the EU country in which they live. In addition, only around 10% currently take advantage of this right.

The Annual Accounts approved by the European Central Bank (ECB) for 2011 shows that the Governing Council decided to transfer an amount of €1,166 million to the risk provision, which increased the risk provision to the level of its present ceiling of €6,363 million. As a result of the transfer to the risk provision, the ECB’s net profit for 2011 was €728 million in comparison with the €171 million of 2010.

The Council adopted the compromise text previously agreed with the European Parliament that aligns the EU directive on fruit juices to the international food standards of the Codex Alimentarius. Once the new rules enters into force, the addition of sugars to fruit juices will not longer be authorised. The new directive authorises the food business operators to use a statement on the labels informing the consumers that from a certain date no fruit juices contain added sugars.