EU News - February 2012

The European Police College offers one-to-one exchanges to police officers

The 2012 European Police Exchange Programme has been launched by the CEPOL, the European Police College. CEPOL will offer one-to-one exchanges to police officers and scientific and research experts, teaching staff and educational programme developers, and commanders. Exchanges are organised according to 16 topics, which have been identified as important to the safety and security of European citizens.

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Public consultation on the way we can produce and consume more sustainably

The Commission intends to revise the EU's Consumption and Production policies and that is why it has launched a public consultation, especially in the context that the economies will need to use natural resources in a far more efficient manner. The public consultation will remain open until 3 April.

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Commission blocks merger between Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext

The Commission's investigation showed that new competitors would be unlikely to enter the market successfully enough to pose a credible competitive threat to the merged company. Therefore, the proposed merger between Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext, has been prohibited by the Commission. In addition, the Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets.

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The 2012 EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue is launched

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, and Cai Wu, Minister of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, have officially launched the year. Besides a large number of events and projects hosted by EU Member States and China, the year offers opportunities for Chinese and EU cultural institutions, organisations and other stakeholders to establish and develop structured and sustainable cooperation during 2012 and beyond.

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The EU unemployment rate remains unchanged in December 2011 in comparison to November

Both, the euro area and the EU unemployment rate remain unchanged in December 2011 compared with November. The euro area unemployment rate was 10.4% and the EU unemployment rate was 9.9%. However compared with December 2010, unemployment rose by 923,000 in the EU and by 751,000 in the euro area.

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MEPs call for an urgent transition to a low-carbon economy

MEPs at the Environment Committee supports the European Commission's Roadmap, which sets "milestones" including CO2 reduction targets of at least 40% by 2030 and at least 80% by 2050. In addition, they called for an improvement on the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and other policies to help its transition towards an economy less dependent on carbon.

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