European Union News - Information Society

Wednesday, February 27, 2007, the Romanian Government approved the Decision regarding the modification and completion of the Norms of application concerning the electronic attribution of public procurement contracts of the Government's Emergency Ordinance no 34/2006 regarding the attribution of public procurement contracts, of contracts for concession of public works and of contracts for service concession, approved by the Government decision no 1660/2006.

The successful implementation of a long term e-skills strategy is of great importance within the renewed Lisbon strategy and as part of lifelong learning strategies and the Recommendation on key competences. This challenge will be discussed at the forthcoming European e-Skills 2008 Conference “Implementing a long term e-skills strategy in Europe”. Participation at the conference is free of charge but on invitation only. Pre-registration is mandatory and will be open until 30 June 2008.

The Dragon Programme, a collaborative venture between the People's Republic of China and the European Space Agency (ESA), has generated significant results in the area of earth observation (EO) satellite data.

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Logix of France by the US-based company Arrow Electronics. The Commission's investigation has shown that the concentration would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

On the 15th May 2008, Peter Hustinx, Supervisor, and Joaquín Bayo Delgado, Assistant Supervisor, presented their fourth Annual Report to the press on data protection.

As part of its effort to combat climate change, the European Commission today announced that it would promote the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy, starting with buildings, lighting and the power grid.

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Tele Atlas by TomTom, both of the Netherlands. Tele Atlas is a provider of navigable digital maps and TomTom produces portable navigation devices (PNDs – often known as satellite navigation devices or SatNavs). After an in-depth examination, launched in November 2007, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

14 films representing in total over €900,000 of co-funding from the European Union's MEDIA programme have been selected for screening at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival which opened on the 14th May 2008.

On the 14th May 2008, the European COmmission published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ), two new Calls for Proposals under the MEDIA Programme 2007 Which aims generally to preserve and enhance European cultural and linguistic diversity and its cinematographic and audiovisual heritage whilst increasing the circulation and viewership of European audiovisual works inside and outside the European Union. 

The European Commission has published an official recruitment notice for Director of the Directorate-General for innovation  and Technological Support.