European Union News - June 2010

Negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council ended late on June 29th  with a deal for new rules on capital requirements for banks and a cap on bonuses for bankers. This new EU wide law, the first cap on how bankers are paid worldwide, will transform the bonus culture and end incentives for excessive risk taking.

A consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality has been launched by the European Commission on June 30th. The Commission wants to know more about potential problems linked with certain forms of traffic management and whether the new telecom rules are sufficient to tackle them, technical and economic aspects, quality of service considerations and whether net freedoms may be affected. Interested parties are invited to send their opinions by September 30th.

BUSINESSEUROPE and the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium will host the 8th European Business Summit (EBS) on June 30th and July 1st 2010, held in Brussels. This platform for EU business debate will count with the presence of presidents Barroso and Van Rompuy as well as many EU Commissioners, EU business CEOs and top executives.

The Spanish six-months Presidency has come to an end with the approval of what will be the roadmap for European growth and economic modernisation, the EU 2020 Strategy, and a series of measures which will allow the economic union to be consolidated, both key priorities of the Spanish programme.

MEPs are neither trying to ban the sale of eggs by the dozen nor the sale or marketing of Nutella. MEP Renate Sommer, who is steering legislation on food labelling through the European Parliament, stressed that there will be no changes to selling foods by number. Selling eggs by the dozen, for example, will not be banned.

The European Commission has handed on June 2010 a mandate for the development of relevent standards on  common charging system for electric cars, scooters and bicycles to the European Standardisation Organisations bodies, CEN-CENELEC and ETSI. Thanks to this mandate plugs and connectors will use the same standard all across Europe, providing a true European solution independently of brands or countries. The Commission expects that the standard will be ready by mid-2011.

The European Commission has presented a campaign aiming to inform European passengers about their rights against problems which could appear when travelling around Europe. At the beginning of the Summer season, when millions of Europeans are starting or planning their holidays, the Commission provides them with a multilingual website where they can find full information about their rights as passengers.

According to the 7th Annual Report presented by the European Commission to the Parliament and the Council of June 25th (COM(2010)334 final) which gives the overview of third country trade actions against the European Union, the number of new investigations and trade defence measures imposed in 2009 was very high. In the Commission opinion, the standards applied in a number of measures against EU exporters leave something to be desired.

The 10 films pre-selected to compete for 2010 European Parliament LUX Prize were unveiled on Monday June 28th, at the Brussels European Film Festival. These films, made in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and the UK, reflect the creative excellence of European cinema, which Parliament is pleased to support.

The Official Journal of the European Union publishes in its issue dated June 29th the notification of proposed concentration between the German transportation company  Deutsche Bahn and British Arriva. The Commission invites any interested party to send its comments over this operation until 10 days after publication in the OJ.

The European Union and the United States of America signed on June 28th 2010 an EU-US agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data (the so-called SWIFT Agreement) for purposes of the US Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP). This signature follows the adoption by the Council of a decision plus accompanying declarations.

The European Commission adopted on June 28th 2010 its Annual Report 2010 on the European Union's development and external assistance policies and their implementation in 2009. This Commission Staff document portrays the main elements and results of the European Union's external action in development and external assistance.