European Union News

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved the text which proposes that corporate taxation should be a compulsory common base to reduce tax shopping and red tape. This amends the Commission's proposal on this matter which indicated that should be applied as a voluntary scheme.

Cecilia Malmström, the Home Affairs Commissioner, inaugurates for managing large-scale EU information systems, a new EU Agency in Tallinn, Estonia. The Agency will ensure the Visa Information (VIS) and EURODAC systems operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In a joint statement of Vice President Joaquín Almunia and UEFA President Michel Platini, confirmed that, with a view of promoting fair competition between football clubs, the interaction between the application to professional football of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules by UEFA are in line with the state aid control in professional football by the Commission. Mr Almunia also expressed his concern regarding the increasing level of indebtedness of many European clubs.

The responsible of the drafting the opinion for the Committee of the Regions on the Commission proposals for the "Re-use of public sector information" and "Open data – an engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance", Ms. Anne Karjalainen, will meet all the stakeholders in 26 of March with the aim to gather views on such proposals.

The public consultation now launched by the Commission is aimed at gathering views on the transparency and comparability of bank account fees, bank account switching and access to a basic bank account. The consultation, which will be available in all EU official languages, will run until 12 June 2012.

According to many delegations which met at the latest meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the CAP reform package presented by the Commission does not take very much into account the six principles outlined in March 2011. Most of European Ministers also were agreed that the introduction of a definition of active farmer could significantly increase the administrative burden. Ministers also were briefed on the Russian ban of EU livestock and about the current drought situation in the Iberian Peninsula.

The European e-Skills Week opening event took place in Brussels on 19 March in Brussels. This years' theme is “There is a job waiting for you”, with the main aim to mobilise stakeholders to inform young people on how to acquire e-skills and find jobs in the digital economy. Thus, numerous activities and events will take place during the e-Skills Week in Europe.

The Regional Development Committee at the European Parliament approved a proposal in which MEPs agreed that sharing investment risks by public and private investors could help to kick-start stalled regional development projects. Thus, Member States benefiting from EU macroeconomic assistance would be able to ask for part of their allocation of EU regional funding to be transferred to the European Commission for use in a risk-sharing scheme.
 

The European Commission and Europa Nostra have announced the winners of the Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards. The awards will be presented on 1 June during a ceremony at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon. At the ceremony, six projects of 28 now selected will be named as 'grand prix' laureates as 2012’s most outstanding heritage achievements.
 

Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative signed on behalf of the EU two agreements with Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad that will enable the building of a medium-scale wastewater treatment plant in Tubas and Tayasir areas in the West Bank (€22 million) and the upgrading of border crossing infrastructure at the Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom crossing point (€13million).

In the framework of the Water Forum and in order to prepare the Rio+20 summit, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) president, Mercedes Bresso and CoR vice-president Valcárcel Siso asked to encourage networking on the issue of water, both within Europe and in the broader perspective of sustainable development at a global level.

European Ministers on Fisheries held a debate on the main regulation proposals of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform “package”. In addition, they adopted conclusions with regard to the external dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy. Ministers agreed on the issue of a discard ban but the views differed concerning the modalities of the implementation of a discard ban.