European Union News - 2009

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, on February 12th 2009, an addendum to the Call for proposals for the Lifelong Learning Programme 2009 EAC/31/08 published in the OJEU C 255 on October 10th 2008, which opens for the participation of the Republic of Croatia and of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the Lifelong Learning Programme.

Based on the report by Raporteur Saïd El Khadraoui, the Transport Committee gave a first reading, with amendments, to a Commission proposal to revised the 1999 "Eurovignette" directive. According to the legislation approved by the EP Transport Committee on February 11th 2009, charges on heavy-goods vehicles should be based in part on the air and noise pollution they produce and the congestion they cause.

To ensure that 112 is known all over Europe, the European Commission, together with the European Parliament and Council, have declared February 11th the “European 112 Day”. This declaration follows the results brought up by an EU-wide survey which shows some differences between Member States in the 112 service implementation. In this sense, Commission and Member States will step up their efforts to publicise 112, especially before the summer holiday period.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU has published on February 11th 2009 three recommendations from the European Council of February 10th 2009 concerning the discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the operations of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth European Development Fund (EDF) for the financial year 2007.

The ECOFIN Council has met for the second time under Czech Presidency, and started preparations for the European Council to be held in March. These preparations concern some major issues in the economic scenario for the coming months such as the possible single market review, the implementation of national measures under the European Economic Recovery Plan, or issues of space for the execution of fiscal stimuli, reduced VAT rates and the appropriate timing of budget consolidation.

Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, recently announced that more than €38 billion was paid out to Member States in 2008 through the European Union's Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund. This support co-financed thousands of regional development projects across the EU, ranging from major transport, environmental and energy infrastructure to investment in innovative SMEs and training.

The agreement signed in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Day organised by the European Commission will empower teenagers to deal with potential risks they may face online, like cyberbullying or revealing personal information. This is the first agreement to be signed at European level which will involve 17 leading web firms such as Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published on February 10th 2009, a new Call for Proposals for for modal shift, catalyst, motorways of the sea, traffic avoidance and common learning actions under the Second Marco Polo Programme. The proposed budget for 2009 Call, which will close on May 8th , will be approximately 62 M€.

The Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union of February 10th 2009, the prior notification of a concentration between French undertakings Dassault Aviation, TSA and Thales, and invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations to the Commission no later than ten after this publication.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on January 10th, 2009 a new call under Erasmus Mundus Programme 2009-2013, inviting to submit proposals aiming to promote cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and Third Countries.

President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, stressed the increasingly crucial role that the European Union must assume in managing instability. In his speech addressed at the Munich Security Conference on February 7th, President Barroso pointed out some of the challenges the World is now facing and  which are starting to have serious geopolitical and social repercussions.

The European Commission has launched a call for evidence on the review of the application of the Investor Compensation Schemes Directive, Directive 1997/9/EC, which aims to protect investors against the risk of losses in the event of an investment firm's inability to repay money or return assets held on behalf of their clients. Interested parties can reply to this call until April 8th 2009.