European Union News - September 2008

14-15 October 2008 the European Commission organize the TEN-T Days 2008 in Brussels in order to analyse the TEN-T policy in the face of the major political challenges of the decades ahead. The conferences will have the participation of Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission.

The Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Directorate A: Economic and Scientific Policies has set up a tender in order to supply external expertise in different policy areas for total value of 2 Meuros.

The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), fell by 1.5 points in the  EU and by 0.8 points in the euro area, in September, leaving these values in 85.2 and 87.7 respectively. In the EU, the ESI reached its lowest level since December 1993, while for the euro area it goes back to 2001 values.

The Justice, Freedom and Security DG, Unit JLS/C/4 is going to develop an study in order to make possible developments of Community legislation in the field of electoral matters including possible modification of Directive 93/109/EC

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on September 30th, a Call for Proposals aiming to support information measures related to Common Agricultural Policy. This call will be funded with 2.9 M€, from appropriations in the 2009 budget.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on September 30th, the Directive 2008/68/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of September 24th, 2008, on the inland transport of dangerous goods. The conditions set up by this Directive will ensure that transport of dangerous goods by road, rail or inland waterway, is carried out under the best possible conditions of safety.

On Sunday, October 5th, 2008 FADERE (Federation of Romanians in Europe) organize the European Forum 2008. The main objective of the event will be to improve the image of the expat Romanian community and seek solutions to the problems of diaspora.

Making Europe more secure for its citizens while maintaining civil rights and liberties is the goal of European Security Research. By co-operating and coordinating efforts on a Europe-wide scale, the EU can better understand and adequately respond to risks in a constantly changing world and enhance its competitiveness at the same time. This is the aim of the a new common research project, called EU-SEC II, which will involve 23 European security administrations and one United Nations agency.

The European Commission has approved a proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers on a new programme for the period 2010–15 under the name “Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations” (ISA). The program responds to the need of cooperation and communication in order to establish and promote commonly agreed solutions to avoid e-barriers at national borders.

The European Commission has outlined in a report, the main steps that Europe has to take to respond to the next wave of the Information Revolution that will intensify in the coming years due to trends such as social networking, the decisive shift to on-line business services, nomadic services based on GPS and mobile TV and the growth of smart tags. In order to assess the possibilities of leadership in this trend, the Commission has launched a public consultation on the policy and private sector responses to these opportunities.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on September 29th, 2008, a Call for Proposals to support the transnational distribution of European films by Agents for the international sale of European cinema films, based on the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council  establishing a single pluriannual programme for Community actions in the audiovisual field for the period 2007-2013.

The Council of the European Union published in the OJEU on September 29th, a Council Joint Action appointing Mr. Pierre Morel, as the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for the crisis in Georgia for the period from September 25tth, 2008, to February 28th 2009. The EUSR will enhance the effectiveness and visibility of the EU in helping to resolve the conflict in Georgia.