EU News - 25 April 2013

The financial crisis continued to exert a significant impact in holding back economic growth in 2012

The European Financial Stability and Integration Report (EFSIR) presented by the European Commission shows, among other conclusions, that European proposals for the establishment of a banking union stem from the need to deepen economic and financial integration in Europe.

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New EU rules could enable firms save billions of euros if they re-use public data instead of producing them from scratch

MEPs at the Industry Committee approved draft EU rules that will enable companies or persons to get access to data such as maps, statistics, weather data, infrastructure listings, data from publicly funded research projects, and digitised books from libraries, which they can then use to develop their businesses. According to MEPs, EU firms could save billions of euros thanks to these draft EU rules that would enable them to re-use public data instead of producing them from scratch

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Commission seeks feedbacks to take them into account in its analysis of Google's commitment proposals

Google has made proposals to try to address the European Commission's four competition concerns. The Commission has concerns that Google may be abusing its dominant position in the markets for web search, online search advertising and online search advertising intermediation in the European Economic Area (EEA). Therefore, the Commission is seeking feedbacks on commitments offered by Google to address these competition concerns.

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The Commission calls on member states to improve training and support for teachers

The European Commission published a report that compiles the latest information on teachers and school leaders, from pre-primary to post-secondary education in the EU, including data on age, gender, working hours and salaries. In the light of the report results, Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth stated that all member states should improve training and support for teachers.

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European Web Entrepreneurs of the 2013 Year are SoundCloud and SwiftKey

Alexander Ljung & Eric Wahlforss of SoundCloud are European Entrepreneurs of the Year while Jon Reynolds of SwiftKey is Young European Entrepreneur of the Year (under 30 years). The Europioneer awards are a partnership between the European Commission and The Next Web. On this occasion, 908 nominations were received from across Europe.

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