European Union News - October 2012

The European Commission and UN Women launched Spring Forward for Women. This programme aims to support national and regional stakeholders to empower women economically and politically in the context of the progress that has followed the Arab Spring. The programme will respond to the support needed at regional and country levels.

The new European Commission's proposal on biofuels intends to minimise the climate impacts of biofuel production. It therefore proposes to limit global land conversion for biofuel production, and raise the climate benefits of biofuels used in the EU.

The European Commission proposed to update the Radio Equipment Directive to make sure all market players comply with the rules regarding the avoidance of interference. The Commission also proposes to clarify and simplify the Directive, to facilitate its application and to eliminate unnecessary burden ultimately increasing all stakeholders' confidence in the regulatory framework.

The European Commission focuses this year's SME Week in promoting women entrepreneurship. According to the Commission, women's entrepreneurial potential is underexploited and the EU needs more women entrepreneurs to create growth and new jobs.

The new special committee on organised crime in the European Parliament proposed to include a Union-wide definition of mafia-related crimes, the possibility of seizing criminal assets and using them to benefit the community, new rules on public procurement and the creation of an EU prosecutor, among other things, to tackle the mafia.

A third general approach, which is a political agreement of the Council pending the adoption of a first-reading position by the European Parliament, was agreed by the Council on the cohesion policy legislative package. The approach is partial since some elements are excluded, in particular the sums to be devoted to cohesion policy and the eligibility of different regions.

Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved a resolution which sets out many measures to improve democratic accountability and legitimacy, so as to match transfers of powers to EU level. The resolution particularly places very strong emphasis on the need for an appropriate accountability setup with regard to a host of players.

The outcome of the new Eurobarometer survey unveils that most of Europeans believe that Europe should continue helping developing countries despite the economic crisis. However, only 44% would be prepared to personally spend more money on products that support development (such as fair-trade goods).

The European Commission launched a public consultation with a view to updating the current list of relevant wholesale and retail telecoms markets subject to the Commission's "Article 7" procedure under EU telecoms rules. In particular, the purpose of the questionnaire is to identify major relevant trends and to consult stakeholders on the revision of the current list of relevant markets and their scope, as well as on markets to be possibly added to the list, including markets regulated at national level and trans-national markets.

The Council significantly broadened EU restrictive measures against Iran, given the EU's serious and deepening concerns over Iran's nuclear programme. In addition, sanctions against the Syrian regime were once more strengthened by the EU. Also, with regard to Belarus, the Council was very concerned about increased acts of harassment and repression of civil society and political opposition as well as a diplomatic crisis with Sweden.

20 young people, all 20 years of age, are the winners of the ‘Generation 1992’ creative competition. Young people from all over Europe born in 1992 (the year in which the European single market was launched) were asked to show what this vast open market meant to them. This competition is celebrated to mark the 20th anniversary of the European single market.

Researchers from Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland believe in a new pan-European study that changes in both temperature and precipitation will affect the range of most tree species. According to them, the change would be from 11% to over 28% under the mild scenario, and to more than 40% of the forest land under the extreme scenario.