European Union News - Industry

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.

Alexander Ljung & Eric Wahlforss of SoundCloud are European Entrepreneurs of the Year while Jon Reynolds of SwiftKey is Young European Entrepreneur of the Year (under 30 years). The Europioneer awards are a partnership between the European Commission and The Next Web. On this occasion, 908 nominations were received from across Europe.

A decision on accounting rules and information on actions concerning greenhouse gas emissions and removals resulting from activities related to land use, land use change and forestry, was adopted by the Agriculture and Fisheries Council. In addition, the Council adopted a regulation on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Commission presented a strategy on adaptation to climate change, and also a Green Paper on insurance in the context of natural and man-made disasters. This public consultation launches a wide debate on the adequacy and availability of existing insurance options.

MEPs adopted in plenary session a proposal which aims to open up ground-handling services at major EU airports to more competition by increasing the minimum number of service providers. They added minimum quality standards and safeguard clauses for staff to the proposal.

The European Commission presented a proposal to amend the existing accounting legislation in order to improve the transparency of certain large companies on social and environmental matters. According to the proposal, large companies with more than 500 employees would be required to disclose relevant and material environmental and social information in their annual reports.

The Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council endorsed the compromise reached between the Council and the European Parliament in their negotiations on a new financial and governance framework for the European satellite navigation systems (EGNOS and Galileo) for the period covered by the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020.

The European Commission published the EU-wide test results for horsemeat DNA and phenylbutazone made in the wake of the horsemeat scandal. The results have revealed that less than 5% of the tested products had horse DNA and that about 0.5% of the equine carcasses tested were found to be contaminated with bute.

The European Commission presented new EU rules to allow manufacturers to develop more aerodynamic lorries by allowing cabins with a rounded shape and with the use of aerodynamic flaps at the back the trailer. According to the Commission, these measures will considerably improve the aerodynamics of vehicles, saving approximately €5,000 per year in fuel costs for a typical long-distance lorry covering 100,000 km.

The European General Court partially annulled the European Commission's decision from 2008 prohibited 24 European collecting societies from restricting competition, in particular by limiting their ability to offer their services to authors and commercial users outside their domestic territory. According to the Court, the Commission has not provided sufficient evidence.