European Union News - 29 April 2013

The European Commission presented strategic guidelines with the aim at coordinating efforts across all member states to foster the development of EU aquaculture. The Commission stressed that these guidelines do not create new legal obligations, but present a series of voluntary steps that member states.

CoRehab, Quuppa, Volumental are the three start-ups chosen to compete for the EIT Entrepreneurship Award 2013. Klaus Beetz, Business Director of the EIT ICT Labs stated that the EIT Entrepreneurship Award is a great opportunity to highlight and encourage entrepreneurial ventures that are coached and supported by the Business Developers of the ICT Labs.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) highlighted that the debate on the overall cost of electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources must be completely transparent and the data publicly available. At the same time, Eurostat published that in 2011, energy from renewable sources was estimated to have contributed 13.0% of gross final energy consumption in the EU.

Following the approval of Spain's National Reform Programme and Stability Programme by the Spanish Government, the European Commission welcomed these programmes. The Commission also underlined that the postponement of the correction of the excessive deficit (to below 3% of GDP) to 2016 is consistent with its assessment. On the other hand, the Commission is consulting on the European System of Financial Supervision.