European Union News - April 2008

The European Commission has given notice of the launch of the call for proposals under the work programme for 2008 of the Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (2007 to 2013). The Call has an allotted 39 million euros.

On 7 April 2008, the Commission decided not to oppose the above notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the common market.

The European Commission, on the 29th of April 2008, published notification of complete Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case COMP/M.4949 — Sonepar/Hagemeyer). On 8 February 2008, the Commission decided not to oppose the above notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the common market.

According to the report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliment on the operation of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of 19 July 2002 concerning the application of international accounting standards, 1, 731 companies apply international accounting standards.

On 20 September 2007, the European Commission approved a transnational cooperation programme between Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Slovenia (with participation from Liechtenstein and Switzerland) for the period 2007-13. The Alpine Space Programme falls within the framework laid out for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective and has a total budget of around €130 million. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €98 million, which represents approximately 1.1% of the total EU investment earmarked for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13.

On 4 December 2007, the European Commission approved INTERACT 2007-13, a European Territorial Cooperation Programme that covers the whole of the European Union, plus Norway and Switzerland. The Programme aims to promote good governance of Community-funded Programmes that fall within the framework of the European Territorial Cooperation Objective and has a total budget of around €40 million. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €34 million, which represents approximately % of the total EU investment earmarked for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13.

The European Data protection Supervisor released a press statement on Monday 28th April 2008 concerning issues within is policy paper on his role in EU research and technological development.

The European Commission Directorate general for energy and transport has released Call for proposals under the multi-annual programme 2007-2013 for the year 2008. The the trans-European transport network itself shall be 45 million euros of which 20 million euros shall be devoted to the motorways of the Sea priority project.

To mark the launch of a new calls for proposalr under the annual work programme in the field of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) for 2008 and multi-annual work programme for grants in the field of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) for the period 2007-2013, the EC has set up a series of meetings on the 16th of May 2008 titled "Information Day". The meetings will be broadcasted live over the Internet.

The European Commission, on the 24th April 2008, published its decision on financial aid from the Community for the year 2008 for certain Community reference laboratories in the field of animal health and live animals.

The European Commission has launched a consultation to prepare an EU Offshore Wind Energy Action Plan by inviting investors, project developers, wind turbine manufacturers, energy companies, government services, environmental NGOs and all other interested stakeholders, including the general public, to help identify the key barriers for the further development of offshore wind energy in Europe and what might be done to overcome them.

EC is studing a new reculation concerning crop statistics as it was presented by in Brussels last 21.4.2008 in the COM(2008)210 final. Statistics on crops are essential for management of the EU markets. It is also considered essential that vegetable and permanent crop statistics be covered in addition to statistics on cereals and remaining crops from arable land currently governed by legislation.