European Union News - July 2012

The European Commission published a report which shows that the EU budget fell by 35% in 2011, and this fall responds to stronger measures and better controls implemented for EU funding; there are also a number of technical explanations for the drop in fraud rate in 2011. In total, €295 million in EU funds were affected by fraud, or 0.2% of the budget.

The European Commission approved national performance plans to improve air traffic management under the period 2012-2014 of the Single European Sky Performance Scheme. The plans are accepted as broadly in line with legally established European Union-wide targets. However, the Commission also adopted recommendations to Member States for further improvements.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) held a debate with the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Werner Hoyer in order to boost the partnership between these two institutions. Both institutions stressed that the cooperation with local and regional authorities should start at an early stage before the programming period 2014-2020 in order to grant the needed continuity in the programmes implementation and to raise the quality of funded projects.

The European Commission's announcement that it will review its "Early Warning System" (EWS) has been welcomed by the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros. The review covers changes aimed at ensuring that the operation of the EWS respects fundamental rights, such as the right to be heard.

The European Commission presented the measures to improve open access to scientific information produced in Europe. According to the Commission, broader and more rapid access to scientific papers and data will make it easier for researchers and businesses to build on the findings of public-funded research.

During the celebration of the 14th Japan-EU Symposium on Employment and Social Issues, both sides highlighted the continued impacts on the labour markets resulting from the economic crisis, and the need to continue their efforts to addressing longer term challenges.

The new Regulation on biocides that has as main aim to ensure that only safe products are made available and that the most dangerous substances are kept out of our market, entered into force on the 17 of July 2012.

The European Commission announced the opening of proceedings against Microsoft in order to investigate whether the company has failed to comply with its 2009 commitments to offer users a choice screen enabling them to easily choose their preferred web browser. In particular, the Commission believes that Microsoft may have failed to roll out the choice screen with Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011.

The European Commission published the second annual report which proves that the European Progress Microfinance Facility has been a successful tool to create jobs, particularly amongst groups with difficulties to raise finance from more traditional sources, by helping start-ups by micro-entrepreneurs.

The European Commission proposed to reform the European rules to speed up and simplify the authorisation and reporting procedures, while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety and robustness and reliability of data.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation in order to gather inputs from stakeholders and citizens on the scope of possible future actions at EU, national and regional level in promoting entrepreneurship. The contributions can be send until 1 of October 2012.

The new measures proposed by the European Commission have as main goal to enable researchers, research institutions and businesses to better move, compete and co-operate across borders. Almost 80% of the research community indicated that lack of open and transparent recruitment hinders international mobility.