European Union News - 2008

In its Decision of April 7th, the Council approved on behalf of the European Union the Agreement between the European Space Agency and the European Union on the security and exchange of classified information. The Agreement was signed in July 18th and published in the OJEU on August 14th, and will enter into force after the Parties have notified each other of the completion of the internal procedures necessary for this purpose.

According to the last estimations published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), Industrial production figures of the Euro zone have remained stable over the month of June, in comparison to the previous month, showing a slight increase of 0,1% for the whole EU27 zone.

The Enterprise and Industry DG, Directorate D — Innovation Policy, published on August 13th a call for tender for the development of European e-competence guidelines, with a maximum budget of 300,000 EUR. Applicants should present their offers by September 26th.

Council Decision 2008/633/JHA, of June 23rd, concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS) by designated authorities of Member States and by Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences, was published in the OJEU on August 13th. This Decision complements Regulation (EC) Nº 767/2008 concerning the VIS and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas, the so-called “VIS Regulation”, which was published on the same date

The need for higher internet speeds appears to be a never ending struggle. The more that goods and services are available online, the more people use the internet, resulting in increased traffic. This is why EU funded the European project GigaWaM with EUR 3 million to modernise people's broadband access and get rid of traffic jams once and for all.

The European Commission has granted clearance under the EU Merger Regulation to the acquisition of joint control of two newly created companies constituting a joint venture (JVs) by Total S.A. of France and Sonatrach, Algeria. The operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on August 12th, the Commission's non opposition to a prior notified concentration between the manufactures of consumer electronics Wistron/Lite and On LCD Business.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, published on August 12th the Commission Recommendation of May 26th on safe and efficient in-vehicle information and communication systems, updating the European Statement of Principles on human-machine interface (HMI). This Recommendation summarises the essential safe design and use aspects to be considered for HMI for in-vehicle information and communication systems, and replaces the previous version of 1999 Recommendation.

The European Commission has released €1 million in fast-track aid to help cover the urgent humanitarian needs of thousands of civilians affected by the fighting in the region of South Ossetia and beyond in Georgia. Experts from the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) are in the region and are closely following the humanitarian situation.

The European Research Council (ERC) has released details of the first round of recipients of its Advanced Grants in the physical sciences and engineering fields. Some 105 of the almost 1,000 applicants from these disciplines have been allocated funding.

The European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union of August 11th a prior notification of a concentration between the companies Galp Energia España and Agip España. With this operation, that was already initiated and withdrawn early this year, Galp Energia seeks to double its retail presence in Spain.

Favourable weather conditions and an increase in the planted area farmed should lead to a total cereals harvest close to 301 million tonnes year 2008 in the European Union, 43 million tonnes more than in 2007. This represents an increase of 16% on the 2007 harvest and 9% on the past five years' average production.