European Union News - 2009

The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the first states to hold, from today, the elections which will form a new European Parliament. From today until June 7, the 27 EU countries will host an election in which the Union and national governments have put all their efforts

The Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on June 4th an invitation to submit comments on the alleged aid to Fortis Bank Nederland and the ABN Asset, following the formal investigation procedure open on such operation. Interested parties may submit their comments to the Commission up to one month after the publication on the announcement.

The European Commission has decided today to propose that 2011 be designated as the "European Year of Volunteering". The Council and the European Parliament are expected to endorse this proposal by the beginning of next year.

Through the GMES  initiative, Europe is developing its own system to monitor the state and evolution of environment. This flagship project was one of the topics covered by European space policy ministers and European Space Agency (ESA) representatives meeting at the Sixth Space Council on 29 May.

The Communication will be an input for the European Council in June and aims to propose a shared commitment for employment around three priorities: maintaining employment and promoting mobility; upgrading skills and matching labour market needs; increasing access to employment.

Notice has been published in the Official Journal of the European on June 3rd 2009 of the launch of a Call for Proposals under sub-Action 4.4 of the ‘Youth in Action’ Programme, aiming to support projects encouraging creativity and innovation in the youth sector. Interested applicants can submit their proposals by September 30th 2009 to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.

Social protection expenditure in 2006 within European Union 27 Member states accounted for 26.9% of GDP. This ratio was 27.1% in 2005 and 2004 and 27.2% in 2003. The data delivered by Eurostat last report show important disparities between Member states, which reflect important differences in terms of living standards.

Reaching the 2020 renewable energy targets is expected to lead to around 2.8 million jobs in the renewable energy sector and generate a total value added of around 1.1% of GDP. This is the main conclusion of a European Commission's study on the impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth and employment in the European Union (Employ-RES) which is already available in the Internet. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said: "This shows that benefits of renewables in terms of security of supply and fighting climate change can go hand in hand with economic benefits".

A new report from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) says that man-made global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 15% between 2000 and 2005, a sharp increase in the expected rate of growth. It also shows that global annual emissions of greenhouse gases increased from 24 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 1970 to 33 billion tonnes in 1990 and 41 billion tonnes in 2005.

The Council took note in its last meeting in May 2009, of information provided by the German delegation concerning the “Google Books Project” (scanning of books in US libraries for establishing a database on the basis of digital copies) and its possible legal implications as regards copyright matters. Commission was asked to elaborate an assessment and to report back in due course.

The Competitiveness Council (Internal market, Industry and Research), held in Brussels on May 28th 2009, emphasized the key role of industry for the European economy and the need to continue to react promptly to the present economic recession with a coherent and coordinated set of short-, medium- and long-term initiatives. Ministers also highlighted the fact that SMEs are the backbone of the European economy, and that they should be respected and considered when setting up framework conditions for European industry.

Jan Fischer, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico and EU Commissioner Vladimír Špidla participated in the fourth plenary session of the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) in the Czech capital Prague. 250 high-ranking participants from all relevant stakeholders are discussing risks, opportunities and transparency issues of nuclear energy.