European Union News - November 2012

The European Commission presented a proposal in order to reach a significant reduction in emissions of climate-warming fluorinated gases (F-gases). Emissions of F-gases, which have a warming effect up to 23,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, have risen by 60% since 1990, while all other greenhouse gases have been reduced.

The Transport and Tourism Committee in the European Parliament rejected further liberalisation of ground-handling services as proposed in a draft legislation by the European Commission. Many MEPs feared that the proposal would lead to a deterioration of working conditions and safety and deplored the lack of evidence that the regulation would increase the overall efficiency of ground-handling operations.

The European Commission adopted a Communication that examines how the implementation and development of the common visa policy could help growth in the EU by facilitating travel opportunities for third country nationals willing to visit the EU.

The European Union and Algeria have signed three financing agreements on the protection of cultural heritage, support for reform in the transport sector and support for youth employment. These three agreements will be translated in grants for worth of a total of €58 million.

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament commented on one of the three key building blocks for establishing an EU banking union that its bank crisis resolution plans focus too closely on individual troubled banks, and must do more to address crises that could infect an entire banking sector.

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.

The Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan Quinn announced that the European Commission is proposing a fivefold increase in its funding for the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) of up to €1 billion.

The European Commission published a decision that makes mandatory for Member States to open the radio spectrum by 30 June 2014 at the latest, and lays down harmonised technical conditions to allow coexistence between different technologies. On this basis the EU will enjoy up to twice the amount of spectrum for high speed wireless broadband as in the United States, namely around 1000 MHz.