European Union News - January 2011

The directive establishes specific deadlines for the payment of invoices and the right to compensation in cases of late payment in all commercial transactions. This new rules aim at increasing the protection of creditors and contribute to the better functioning of Internal Market, especially for SMEs. Member states will now have two years to comply with its provisions.

By ratifying the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement at the European Parliament's Plenary session on 19 January, Serbia is now one step closer in its path towards the European Union. Although some issues are still to be solved, such as reinforcing Belgrade's full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this is a positive step on the path to EU membership.

Getting to know whether in the future wood resources would be enough to satisfy human needs is one of the objectives set by the EU funded project EUWOOD, 'Real potential for changes in growth and use of EU forests'. Under this project, researchers also aim at showing new insight into the wood biomass supply.

In a resolutions approved in Parliament's plenary session on 20 January, MEPs called for sanctions to be taken against Belarusian authorities by imposing a travel ban and asset freeze on Belarusian officials, judges and security officers involved in the violent election crackdown of 19 December 2010. Lifting these measures should be conditional upon the release of imprisoned opposition leaders.

As announced by the European Commission, a record amount of state aid for the deployment of broadband was authorised during the year 2010. In total, the Commission adopted a record number of 20 decisions covering aid for broadband development in, among others, Catalonia, Finland and Bavaria. In so doing the Commission takes one more step towards the objective to increase Internet access in all EU areas as set out in the EU 2020 strategy.

As announced a month ago, Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice President responsible for transport, met on 19 January with the CEOs of some major European airports in order to analyse the causes that led to air travel chaos at the end of 2010. Extreme weather conditions caused the partial or total closure of several airports and the cancellation of many flights, leaving thousands of passengers blocked in airports.

In order to support the activity of the three recently launched European Supervisory Authorities, the Commission has proposed to make targeted changes to legislation in the area of insurance and securities regulation. The proposal sets out in detail the scope for the Authorities to exercise their powers, ncluding the possibility to develop draft technical standards and to settle disagreements between national supervisors.

The European Commission has published a report on Member States' performance in the prevention and recycling of waste. This report shows that despite some Member States have made excellent progress, there is still some way from achieving the long-term goal of becoming a 'recycling society', a society  that not only avoids producing waste but also uses it as a resource.

The Parliament has approved at its Plenary session on 19 January the text of a new directive which clarifies the rights of patients wishing to receive care in a member state different that their country of origin. This directive sets the conditions for reimbursement of the treatment carried out abroad and establishes a system for prior authorization in certain cases. Member states will have two and half years to transpose the directive.

Ensuring fairness of food prices and fighting against speculation in this sector as well as putting in place measures to encourage young people to start their career in agriculture, must be two of the key priorities for the future CAP. This was the main conclusion put forward by the European Parliament at the debate held in plenary session on the future of CAP.

Economic and Financial Affairs ministers from the Eurogroup, meeting in Brussels prior to the celebration of the Ecofin Council on 17 January, did not manage reach an agreement regarding the possibility to increase the resources for the European Financial Stability Fund. They did, however reach an agreement about the need to undergo a new round up of stress tests within EU banking sector.

Negotiations have begun for the 44 projects that were shortlisted to receive a share of the nearly 58 million euro available under the 2010 call for project proposals of the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme. These new projects are set to contribute to the wider use of renewable energy sources and increased levels of energy efficiency across Europe.