European Union News - January 2011

The European Commission has launched a public consultation in order to gather opinions from stakeholders regarding Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) and the harmonisation of certain aspects of securities settlement in the European Union. This consultation whose results will inform the legislative proposals due in June 2011, will be open for participation until 1 March 2011.

Some of the conclusions put forward by a study released by the European Commission show that while 84% of the software programs tested enable parents to block access to certain websites, they are less efficient at filtering web 2.0 content such as social networking sites or blogs. In addition, only a few products on the market are able to filter web content accessed via mobile phones or game consoles, at a time when one child out of four in Europe goes online in this way.

The European Commission has published the statistical and economic report 2010 on Rural Development in the EU which provides information covering the three objectives for the 2007-2013 period. The report includes an overview of the Rural Development budget over this period as well as information on the financial monitoring of programmes in Member states and in Candidate Countries.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on 13 January the Commission's Decision 2011/12/EU of 12 January 2011 amending Decision from 2007 which established the European Research Council. This provision follows the recommendations made during an independent review of its structures and aims at guaranteeing the efficiency and coherence of this institution.

The European Commission has launched on 12 January a public consultation to prompt the views of other European institutions, the Member States and private stakeholders on the findings reflected in the report on the application of the Directive and the technical paper attached to it. Interested parties can submit their opinions by 31 March 2011.

The president of the European Commission presented on 12 January the first release of the Annual Growth Survey, which focuses on the coordinated efforts to be made by Members states and institutions and identifies the priorities to develop Europe's comprehensive plan to respond to the crisis and to speed up economic growth. This first Annual Growth Survey is the start of the first "European Semester" which changes the way governments shape their economic and fiscal policies.

The European Parliament Delegation for relations with Maghreb countries called in a formal declaration on 10 January for an independent inquiry to be set up into the death of street protesters in Tunisia. This request followed the formal statement made by High Representative Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Füle, who also expressed EU's concern about the situation in Tunisia.

The European Commission has put forward the mid-term external evaluation on the implementation of the Culture Programme which analyses the results of the actions undertaken so far. The report, which makes an overview about the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the application of the Programme, concludes that although some aspects could have been improved during the implementation, the overall results have been satisfactory.

Members of the Internal Committee of the European Parliament voted on 10 January 2010 to endorse a new EU regulation on the marketing of construction products. According to these new rules construction products containing hazardous substances will have to be clearly labelled as such in order to protect the health and safety of construction workers and users of construction works.

On 11 January, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, and President of the All-China Youth Federation, Wang Xiao, opened the EU-China Year of Youth in the presence of 200 young people from the EU and China. This year aims to strengthen and expand people-to-people contacts, intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation, offering opportunities for young Europeans and Chinese to meet, exchange and learn from each other during 2011 and beyond.

One year after being hit by one of the most terrible natural disasters in recent times which affected more than one million people, political instability in Haiti now prevents EU humanitarian aid to reach the people in need and makes the reconstruction process slower and more complex. This concerns were expressed by the European Commission in taking stock of the situation in the country twelve months after the earthquake.

As Internet connectivity continues to spread, EU citizens and organisations will be subjected both to a larger volume of cyber attacks, and to attacks from previously underconnected areas of the world. Combatting cybercrime will therefore require new international strategic and operational partnerships. These are some of the findings put forward by the recently released  Europol’s iOCTA report.