European Union News - 2009

The national winners of the European Union prize for Young Journalists will travel to Berlin to begin the journey of award and attend the final conference in celebration of their success and, while looking back over the past 20 years since the fall of Berlin Wall. The European Young Journalist Award is one of the biggest competitions pan-European level of this type. The competition was open to young writers between 17 and 35 years of EU Member States and candidate and potential candidates, and this year over 600 projects have been received.

The EU is phasing out traditional light bulbs over the next three years in favour of a new generation of energy-efficient lighting. Under new rules coming into force in September, manufacturers and importers can no longer sell clear incandescent light bulbs of 100 watts or above in the EU. However, shops may continue to sell bulbs already in stock.

Swedish government ministers have outlined their Council Presidency priorities to the committees on constitutional affairs, climate change, international trade and gender equality. Further presentations will be made to other committees this week, now that MEPs have returned from their holidays.

The European Commission is who is organizing the third edition of this competition aimed at secondary schools. Candidates for the prize, the Juvenes Translatores, can test their skills by translating a text into a language of their choice, in order to obtain a prize. The registration period is open until 20th October.
 

Reporting in the journal Science, researchers from the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) describe the challenges facing science teachers in European schools and explain how their programme addresses the problem.
 

The Résidence Palace building project in Brussels is progressing. The aim is for these new premises to house the European Summits and the meetings of Ministers starting from 2013. As the EU Member States wished, the building will be a reference for sustainable development.

A new EU-funded project aims to develop economically and environmentally efficient techniques for the production of biofuels. Called NEMO ('Novel high-performance enzymes and micro-organisms for conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to bioethanol'), the initiative will generate new ways of converting agricultural and forestry waste, such as straw and wood chips, into liquid biofuels.

On 1–3 September, the European Parliament’s buildings in Brussels will be crawling with Swedish ministers and officials. The ministers will be presenting the Swedish Presidency’s priorities to the Parliament’s committees. The committee presentations are public and can be followed on the Presidency website.

Since its launch in November 2008, the Europe's multilingual digital library Europeana has  doubled the number of objects to which users can access, reaching 4.6 million digitized contents. The Commission's objective is to reach 10 million by 2010. This objective comes along the public  debate opened by the Commission on the challenges of digitization of books in Europe, and the implications of this with projects such as Google Books.

The European Commission asked EFSA to assess the current EU limits which exist for six different types of toxins in shellfish, known as marine biotoxins and the testing methods established in EU legislation. Marine biotoxins are poisonous substances produced by different algae that can accumulate in shellfish.

The European Union, year after year, is being hit by forest fires. This puts European citizens at risk and causes tremendous costs economically and to nature and wildlife. Therefore 55 partners, with support of the European Commission, have joined forces in a project for rapid mapping of places at risk via satellites, the SAFER project.

The EIB’s Interim Revised OFC Policy was approved by the Board of Directors on July 14th 2009 following extensive consultations with EU Member States, key expert Lead Organisations, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and other concerned stakeholders, including civil society organisations. The Interim Revised OFC Policy is now published on the EIB’s website.