European Union News - 2008

This Energy Council will be held on Friday 6 June, in Luxembourg. It will start at 10.00 and last the whole day, depending on the outcome of the discussions. It will be followed by a press conference.

On the 6th June 2008, the European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ), Prior notification of a concentration between AVNET, a distributor of IT products and technology services and Horizon Technology which specialises in technical integration and distribution of IT products.

As part of various notices from  the European Union and Union Institutions and Bodies, published on the 6th June 2008,  the European Council published its conclusions on a European approach to media literacy in the digital environment.  Considering that the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive calls for the development of media literacy in all sections of society the European Parliament has asked the Council and the Commission to develop and to implement media literacy programmes to promote active and aware citizenship in Europe.

The European Commission has decided to pursue infringement procedures against 11 Member States for failure to implement the Cross-Border Mergers Directive in national law. The Commission will send formal requests to Belgium, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia. These formal requests take the form of "reasoned opinions", the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. The Directive should have been implemented before the end of 2007.

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the Norwegian company Trolltech by the Finnish company Nokia. Nokia is mainly active in the development and supply of mobile handsets and Trolltech is a supplier of software development tools, that is software used to develop software. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or a substantial part of it.

The Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Estonia and Finland to fully implement EU rules prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation on the grounds of sex (2002/73/EC). The countries have two months to respond. If they fail to reply or if the response is unsatisfactory, the Commission can decide to take them to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

On the 5th June 2008 in Brussels, European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva presented a report by independent experts entitled "Evaluating Business Safety Measures in the Toy Supply Chain." The Report was carried out at the initiative of the European Commission, as a follow up to the Commission's product safety Stocktaking review in Autumn 2007. The stocktaking was undertaken after a series of high profile recalls to review the strengths and weaknesses of the existing mechanisms to ensure product safety in Europe.

More than 2,000 students and 450 teaching staff from outside Europe have been selected to receive an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for the academic year 2008/09. These scholarships will allow them to study in Europe for one or two years and obtain a Master's degree from one of the 103 top-quality Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses offered by consortia of European higher education institutions.

On the 5th of June 2008, the European Commission lodged proceedings against the United Kingdom for failure to comply with European employment legislation relating to road transport activities. The commission is also taking measures to act against the United Kingdom concerning the failure to adopt as agreed national legislation on the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States.

On 29th May 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration between Eramet, the Frecnh mining group and the Norwegian company Tinfos by which the undertaking Eramet SA (‘Eramet’, France) acquires control of part of Tinfos A/S (all the assets of Tifnos excluding a 60 % in Tinfos' hydropower business) (‘Tinfos’, Norway) by way of
purchase of shares.

Four Companies have won the 2008 European Business Awards for the Environment. The winners were announced this evening by European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas at an awards ceremony during the annual Green Week conference in Brussels. The awards recognise "the Best of the Best" businesses that have won awards at national level.

On the 5th June 2008 the European Commission published a recommendation dating back from the 10th April 2008 on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations.