European Union News - 2009

In the framework of its strategy to better combat tax evasion and fraud, the European Commission adopted on January 30th 2009 two proposals for new Directives aimed at improving mutual assistance between Member States' tax authorities in the assessment and the recovery of taxes. One of the key elements of the proposals is that Member States would no longer be able to invoke bank secrecy in order to refuse cross border co-operation.

The European Commission has authorised under state aid rules of the EC Treaty, a scheme offering reduced-interest loans to businesses investing in the production of green products. The aid, which is one of the measures adopted by France to tackle the current economic crisis, will support businesses faced with financing problems because of the credit squeeze, while at the same time making it easier for them to invest in products with an environmental benefit.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, has published in February 3rd 2009, Directive 2008/122/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of January 14th, 2009, on the protection of consumers in respect of certain aspects of timeshare, long-term holiday product, resale and exchange contracts. This Directive aims to tackle the existing regulatory gaps which create appreciable distortions of competition and may cause problems for EU consummers.

The European Commission has published a set of Decisions (2009/85/EC, 2009/86/EC and 2009/87/EC) adopted in January 2009, concerning the clearance of the accounts of certain paying agencies in Estonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Belgium and Germany concerning expenditure financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and expenditure in the field of rural development measures, as well as expenditures, financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF). All these Decisions concern the 2007 financial year.

A test platform for a remote handling system essential to the future functioning of the ITER fusion reactor has been officially inaugurated in Tampere, Finland. The full-size test facility DTP2 (Divertor Test Platform for ITER) is said to be a significant step forward both for the international ITER project and for nuclear fusion research in general.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, has published on January 31st, 2009 the Conclusions reached by the Council on the definition of a “2020 vision for the European research area”. Following these conclusions the Council adopts such definition aiming at boosting the complete achievement of the European Research Area (ERA).

The European Commission has launched the EU Calendar, a new Internet tool that allows people anywhere in the world to find out what will be on the agenda of the European institutions in the near future.

The Polish authorities notified in December 2007, a regional investment aid in favour of Dell Poland for a large investment project aiming at setting up a new plant for the production of desktops, notebooks and servers in an assisted Article 87.3 a) region in Poland and for the creation of 3.000 jobs. The project's eligible costs amount to 189,58 M€ and the proposed aid amount is 52,73 M€, which corresponds to an aid intensity of 27,81 % GGE.

In January, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the EU and the euro area declined again, but less sharply than in the last three months of 2008. Besides, the data released by Eurostat show an increase of unemployment up to 7.4% in the EU27 and 8.0% in the EU15 area in December 2008.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published on January, 30th 2009 a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and Australia on trade in wine, which will replace the previous 1994 Agreement, aiming to facilitate and promote wine trade between the Community and Australia.

The Council of the European Union has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU on January 30th 2009, a report with its conclusions concerning joint programming of research in Europe in response to major societal challenges. These conclusions recognize the need for a common response to certain issues within an ever more global framework.

The EC strategic review on Better Regulation in the European Union shows that better regulation is a core component of Europe's response to the economic and financial crisis. The review shows that citizens and companies, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), already benefit from simplified measures and administrative costs savings. Thanks to radical simplification some 1,300 acts, representing around 10 % of the acquis or 7800 pages of the Official Journal, have been proposed for removal so far.