European Union News - 27 February 2013

The results of a European Parliament latest opinion poll show that Europeans are increasingly interested in European affairs, while the economic crisis remains a key concern, as it has done since 2008.

A World Trade Organization panel report shows that China's anti-dumping duties on imports of X-ray security scanners from the EU were in breach of WTO anti-dumping rules. Thus, China will be expected to remove its anti-dumping duties on EU imports of X-ray security scanners, if the report is not appealed within 60 days.

The informal agreement reached between the Council and the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas operations was backed by the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council. To enter into force it still needs to be formally approved by the Parliament and by the Council - after the plenary vote in the Parliament.

The European Commission has proposed to amend five existing EU health and safety Directives on protection of workers from exposure to harmful chemicals to align them with the latest rules on classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals.

The European Commission is gathering views with regard to the new open data portal recently launched in beta version. According to this European institution, this new Data Portal provides access to open public data from the European Commission. The Commission also highlights that this Data Portal promotes and builds literacy around Europe’s data.