European Union News - 2009

An international conference gathering some 100 researchers and analysts worldwide will discuss apprenticeship and work-based learning are being re-energised as valuable routes of vocational education and training in a number of countries across the globe and the role of apprenticeship in contributing to successful school-to-work transitions.

Europe's mobile phone industry will sign the eCall Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), giving its full backing to eCall. Europe's in-car automatic emergency call system has life-saving potential as it automatically dials 112, Europe's single emergency number, when a car has a serious accident and sends its location to the nearest emergency service – even when the passengers do not know or cannot say where they are.

The Europe Direct Centre of Luis Vives Foundation will organize in Madrid between 21 and 25 September the week "Connect to Social Europe", with a range of activities that reveal how to act and how to take part in the decision proccess of the European Union.

A political dispute over the borders in Western Sahara prevented Spain and Morocco from ratifying the Cooperation Agreement for the Protection of the Coasts and Waters of the North-East Atlantic against Pollution (Lisbon Agreement), which was signed on October 1990. Once the dispute over the concerned articles of the Agreement has been settled, and after Spanish ratification, it is appropriate for the Community to conclude the Additional Protocol to the Lisbon Agreement. The Lisbon Agreement creates a mechanism to ensure the cooperation between the Contracting Parties in case of pollution accidents.

To coordinate EU’s position in view of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Swedish Prime Minister and European Council President Fredrik Reinfeldt today called for an extra informal European Council meeting to take place in Brussels on Thursday the 17th of September.

The European Commission declared on September 3rd 2009 its support for a new Global Framework for Climate Services that is being discussed at the 3rd World Climate Conference (WCC-3) in Geneva. Proposed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the purpose is to obtain more scientifically reliable data and prediction systems for climate forecasting.

The President of the European Commission has sent the President of the European Parliament a document which specifies the objectives that he believes should guide the partnerships between the Commission and Parliament during the next 5 years. It says that "Europe is facing stark choices in today's interdependent world. Either we work together to rise to the challenges. Or we condemn ourselves to irrelevance. I will redouble my efforts to make an ambitious Europe happen. A Europe that puts people at the heart of the policy agenda and projects European values and interests in the world. A Europe that nurtures new sources of growth and drives forward smart regulation of sound markets that work for people. A Europe of freedom and solidarity."

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation under the EU Merger Regulation into the planned acquisition of US hardware and software vendor Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, a US database and application software company. Commission has shown its concern about the implications over competition between Oracle databases and Sun's MySQL, and will now have 90 working days, until January 19th 2010, to take a final decision.

At the informal finance ministers’ lunch meeting in Brussels on September 3rd, ministers of finance from the 27 Member States agreed on common EU positions on the key issues to be discussed at the upcoming G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh, including financial market reform, strengthening international financial institutions, and combating climate change. Among the priority objectives of the Union is to end the "old culture" on bonus compensations to executives in the financial sector.

The European Union invested up to 6.8 M€ for academic cooperation with industrialised countries in North America, through its longstanding cooperation with the US and Canada. Under this cooperation scheme, de Commission has announced the launch of 33 new and innovative projects involving universities and training institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

 Aid for private storage of butter and skimmed milk powder should be prolonged to help farmers through the current crisis. Agriculture Committee MEPs gave their go ahead on Wednesday to a Commission proposal to prolong intervention periods for the butter and milk powder market until February next year.

Today the Commission launched a proposal to create a "Joint EU Resettlement Programme" in order to protect refugees through cooperation between Member States. The aim of this programme is to relocate refugees from the first place of asylum to a country where protection is ensured and where they can develop their lives. This is the most viable solution for those who are unable to return to their country of origin, which are Asia, Africa or the Middle East in most cases.