European Union News - 06 November 2012

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2012 presented by the European Commission and that compares 190 European regions shows that there is considerable diversity in regional innovation performance not only across Europe but also within the Member States. Most of the European countries have regions at different levels of innovation performance. The report also shows how in almost all European countries capital regions are the national innovation leaders.

Compared with August 2012, the industrial producer price index rose by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU in September 2012. However, decreases were recorded in Greece (-0.6%), Spain and Italy (both -0.1%). Compared with September 2011, industrial producer prices gained 2.7% in the euro area and 2.6% in the EU.

With a budget of €11 million, the calls for proposals will be launched in January and will offer research funding in areas such as agriculture, health, climate change and energy, grouped under three headings: "Renewable Energy", "Interfacing Challenges" and "Idea driven research". This initiative has been developed within the framework of the €2 million, three-year "ERA-Net for Africa" (ERAfrica) project.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that its investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy have reached €10 billion since the launch of its Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) in 2006. SEI has financed 552 projects ranging from the insulation of a nursery in Slovakia to energy efficiency credit lines in Turkey.

Vítor Caldeira, President of the European Court of Auditors, presented in the European Parliament the 2011 Annual Report on the implementation of the 2011 EU budget. According to Mr Caldeira, although revenue and commitments for payments were free from material error, payments were affected by material error. Thus, the Court found too many cases of EU money not hitting the target or being used sub-optimally.