European Union News - 2009

The European Commission and some leading International Financial Institutions (IFIs) – World Bank, EIB, IMF and EBRD reached on July 31st 2009 an understanding with the Government of Ukraine on concrete measures to reform the Ukrainian energy market and Naftogaz, the state-owned energy company. The agreement should provide the stability needed to significantly reduce the risk of a further gas crisis between Ukraine and Russia and therefore provide the security of supply that Member States and our consumers expect.

Brussels has decided to extend the deadline for the applications for the call for proposals 2009 for financial support to European consumer organisations until September 25th.

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of mobile electronics and transportation systems manufacturer Delphi Corporation by the global investment company Platinum Equity LLC. After calling for observations comming from interested parties, Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or a substantial part of it.

Eurofound has issued a report which looks at working time agreements set by collective bargaining. It has found that the average paid annual leave entitlement for workers in Europe was 25.2 days across the EU in 2008; however, some countries had up to three weeks’ more holidays than others.

In spite of EU efforts to help the developing world in 2005 more than one billion people in the world are living in poverty. Therefore, the "I fight against poverty" campaign wants to raise awareness among youngsters of the importance of volunteerism and the EU policies for development, and it contains, among other initiatives, a musical contest.

Europe will come to 500 million, thanks in part to migration and an increase in the number of births while the rate of deaths has remained stable. All EU countries except Germany, have seen their birth rate increase, particularly Lithuania, Poland and Ireland.

The European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005: 56% of Europeans now regularly use the internet, 80% of them via a high-speed connection (compared to only one third in 2004), making Europe the world leader in broadband internet.

The journal Science published a study by researchers from United Kingdom and Spain and financed from EU funds concludes that ecological restoration in areas of high environmental degradation can help stop the loss of global biodiversity. Also showed that the conservation work that are most effective when the restoration is intended to ensure the quality of "ecosystem services" such as drinking water, food production and carbon storage.

The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) handles over 62.000 contacts with EU consumers who turn to them for advice or for help with problems affecting cross-border shopping, both in person and online. The European Commission supports the network and has published the ECC-Net Annual Report for 2008, which saw a 22% increase in the number of Consumers turning to them directly for help. In 2008 most complaints tackled by ECCs concerned transport (33%, of which 80% related to air transport), recreational services (25%) and hotels and restaurants (13%).

The European Commission has published several calls for proposals in various thematic areas of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), under three of the specific programmes that develop it: Cooperation, Capacities and Ideas. 

Following the measures adopted in the field of maritime safety, the European Commission has set up the High Level Steering Group on SafeSeaNet, whose creation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU on August 1st, 2009. Chaired by the European Commission and integrated by representatives from all Member States, the Group will support the development of SafeSeaNet system.

In the framework of the ESPON 2013 programme, calls for proposals and expression of interest will be launched on 16 September 2009. ESPON is an initiative that aims to study the conditions for the development of several areas in the EU. The calls will reflect priorities 1 to 4 of the programme.