European Union News - 2008

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.

The Commission has published in the OJEU of September 26th, the Guidelines setting out the principles that it will follow when defining markets and assessing cooperation agreements in liner shipping services, cabotage and international tramp services, maritime transport services directly affected by the changes brought about by Council Regulation (EC) No 1419/2006 of September 25th, 2006.

It has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union the Commission Regulation (EC) No 941/2008 of 25 September 2008 laying down form and content of the accounting information to be submitted to the Commission for the purpose of the clearance of the accounts of the EAGF and EAFRD as well as for monitoring and forecasting purposes.

The European Commission has publised on the Official Journal of the European Union september 26, 2008 a call for expressions of interest in membership in the scientific risk assessment Advisory Structure of Scientific Committees and database of experts. Closing date for submitting applications for membership in the Advisory Structure is 31 October 2008.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the Commission and the Member states to safeguard media pluralism and ensure that all EU citizens can access free and diversified media. To prevent owners, shareholders or governments from interfering with editorial content, MEPs advocate creation of editorial charters. They also encourage an open discussion of the status of weblogs.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal for a directive that will further reduce the administrative burdens on European public limited-liability companies in the area of mergers and divisions. Under the proposal, companies would benefit from simplified requirements on reporting and on publication of draft terms

The EU-China Joint Economic and Trade Committee, which was held on September 23rd, covered a wide range of topics, including trade in goods and services, Intellectual Property Rights, sustainable development and trade, and investment. During the Joint Committee the two sides agreed on a number of points of consensus to overcome hurdles in the EU-China trade relationship.

The third exercise to test the functioning of the EU's Emergency and Crisis Coordination Arrangements in Brussels (CCA) was conducted successfully on Tuesday September 23rd, 2008. The results of the exercise performed this year to assess crisis management and response mechanisms, confirmed that the arrangements work well, and the lessons learned will allow them to be improved further.