European Union News - 2012

The biannual information on euro banknote counterfeiting shows that the overall quantity of counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in 2011 was 19.3% lower compared with the figures for 2010. In addition, the European Central Bank also announced that the number of monetary financial institutions in the euro area and in the EU decreased further in 2011.

The European Commission presented a new Eurobarometer survey in which it assures that Europeans are ready for 'active ageing'. In particular, over 60% believe that we should be allowed to continue working after retirement age and one third says that they would like to work longer themselves. For most citizens, people aged 55 years and older play a major role in key areas of society.

The measure proposed by the European Commission intends to deliver One Stop Shop for all electronically delivered services. According to the Commission, as from 1st January 2015, it will benefit businesses dealing with multiple VAT obligations that can be very burdensome and costly. The One Stop Shop approach for EU trade across borders will be applied first to e-commerce, broadcasting and telecom services. In the future the Commission will seek to extend the One Stop Shop to other goods and services.

According to a recent published Commission's report, if the EU waste legislation is fully implemented, it would save €72 billion a year, increase the annual turnover of the EU waste management and recycling sector by €42 billion and create over 400,000 jobs by 2020.

Eurostat published its latest statistics on the active ageing in the EU which show that the employment rate for persons aged 60-64 increased from 23% in 2000 to 31% in 2010 and from 50% to 61% for those aged 55-59. With regard to the statistics by country, the share of those aged 55 and over varied between 21% in Ireland and 33% in Germany and Italy in 2010.

A Commission's report recently published which provides an outlook on agricultural commodity market developments, shows that the agricultural commodity prices are expected to stay firm over the medium term.

MEPs at the Civil Liberties Committee debated on the concerns as to whether the laws implementing Hungary's new constitution are compatible with EU rules and values. Some MEPs favoured awaiting the European Commission's analysis of the laws, while some MEPs proposed a "fundamental rights check" to determine whether there is a risk of a serious breach of EU values.

The cooperation between Europol and other EU Member States achieved to break up an international organised crime network, responsible for the large-scale production and trafficking of synthetic drugs. Europol initiated ‘Operation Fire’, working together with several European law enforcement agencies, in order to dismantle the organised crime network and stop the large-scale production and trafficking of synthetic drugs within the European Union.

According to the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Commission needs to ensure that the computerised "Early Warning System" (EWS), an internal mechanism, which identifies persons deemed to pose a threat to the financial interests of the European Union, respects fundamental rights, such as the right to be heard.

The European Border Breakers Awards (''the EBBAs") ceremony took place on 11 January at the Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival in Groningen (The Netherlands). The biggest winner of the night was Belgian star Selah Sue, who scooped the public choice award. The event was broadcast live via YouTube and will be screened on TV throughout Europe in the coming weeks.

The Green Paper consultation adopted by the Commission seeks the views of stakeholders on how to create a secure and transparent integrated payments environment throughout the EU which could create more efficient, modern and safer means of payments. The deadline for submitting contributions to the consultation is 11 April 2012.

The European Medicines Agency launches a public consultation aimed at evaluating the revised guideline which provide advices and information on all stages of clinical drug development for the treatment of malignancies, including drug resistance modifiers or normal tissue protective compounds.