European Union News - Regional Policy

Europe needs a strong Cohesion Policy after 2013. That was the consensus in over 100 contributions to a public consultation on the issue, Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, said today. She was speaking at a presentation of the Fifth Progress Report on Economic and Social Cohesion. The two-part document comprises a report on the public consultation, and an analytical report on regional economies, which shows that less developed regions continue to show strong growth, underpinned by a shift towards sectors of the future.

For the first time in its 33-year history, the ACP-EU Council of Ministers has come out with a joint political resolution on top-of-agenda issues such as food prices, Economic Partnership Agreements and regional integration, and the effectiveness of development aid. ACP-EU is the Africa - Caribbean - Pacific - European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly

The 3rd World Forum on Human Rights took place at the International Convention Center of Nantes Métropole between the 30th of June and the 3rd of July 2008. It was organised by the permanent international Secretariat Human Rights and Local Governments, association by French Law (Law 1901).

On 13th December 2007, the European Commission adopted the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Operational Programme for Gibraltar in the United Kingdom for the period 2007-2013. The Programme falls within the framework laid out for the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective and has a total budget of around €11.6 million. Community funding through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €5.8 million, which represents approximately 1.1% of the total EU investment earmarked for the United Kingdom under the Cohesion Policy 2007-2013

The Lisbon Strategy's implications for education, training and social inclusion were the focus of a seminar organised by the Committee of the Regions' Commission for Economic and Social Policy (ECOS), in Logroño, Spain, today, 6 June. The event, held at the invitation of Pedro Sanz Alonso, President of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja, highlighted the importance of providing young people with the skills needed for an increasingly competitive labour market.

At the Heiligendamm Summit in June 2007, the G-8 acknowledged an EU proposal for an international initiative on energy efficiency tabled in March 2007, and agreed to explore, together with the International Energy Agency, the most effective means to promote energy efficiency internationally. A year later, on 8 June 2008, the G8 countries, China, India, South Korea and the European Community decided to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, at the Energy Ministerial meeting hosted by Japan in the frame of the 2008 G8 Presidency, in Aomori.

This year’s EU-US Summit will take place in Brdo, Slovenia on Tuesday 10 June. The Summit will cover the full gamut of global and regional issues where the EU and the US seek to act in partnership. Issues for discussion will include assisting the development of Kosovo, following up on the Middle East peace initiative launched last year at Annapolis, shaping a comprehensive and binding post-2012 global agreement on tackling climate change, and working together to promote energy efficiency as well as energy security through the diversification of supply sources and the development of sustainable new forms of energy. Strengthening of the economic and regulatory cooperation and the deburdening of enterprises on both sides of the Atlantic will also be discussed, following the cooperation in this field in the framework of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC). The EU will also be asking the US for an update on progress towards its commitment to bring further EU Member States into the US Visa Waiver Programme.

On the 6th June 2008 the EC published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ), the Council regulation (EC) No 479/2008 of 29 April 2008 on the common organisation of the market in wine, amending Regulations (EC) No 1493/1999, (EC)
No 1782/2003, (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 3/2008 and repealing Regulations (EEC) No 2392/86 and (EC) No 1493/1999.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending a total of EUR 200 million to TIM Celular S.A. and its subsidiary TIM Nordeste S.A for the expansion of their mobile digital communication networks in Brazil using 2G and 3G technologies. This represents the first project funded by the EIB to include UMTS broadband technology outside Europe.

The 7th biennial Baltic Sea States Summit will be held on 3 and 4 June in Riga, Latvia. Reform of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region will both feature on the Summit agenda. The European Union firmly believes that the Summit will result in a more effective CBSS and looks forward to working with it as an important actor in the region.