European Union News

MEPs adopted a resolution in which they call to the European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection department to manage aid more efficiently and less bureaucratically while, at the same time, ensuring a high level of accountability and transparency. They also point out that EU Member States should show more political will to advance UN reform; so that accountability improves.

The European Commission service that allows citizens and businesses to ask questions about their EU rights has received its 100,000th enquiry. Also in 2011 YOUR EUROPE ADVICE replied to more than 15,000 enquiries. 8 out of 10 questions deal with social security issues, residence rights, work-related issues, migration and cars.

Eurostat publishes for the first time the quarterly data on government debt. According to the figures, at the end of the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 87.4%, down compared with 87.7% at the end of the second quarter of 2011. In the EU the ratio increased from 81.7% to 82.2%. Compared with the third quarter of 2010, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 83.2% to 87.4%) and the EU (from 78.5% to 82.2%).

A team of Spanish scientific has successfully defined translators that permit understanding between contents in both protocols by means of a technology called NAT64 and DNS64, which is the standard used by the major manufacturers of routers, such as Cisco or Juniper, and the major sellers of the Domain Name System (DNS), such as Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) or Microsoft.

A report approved by the European Parliament addresses the 114 complaints from EU citizens in 2004-2010 alleging breaches of EU law on waste treatment. At the resolution, MEPs ask for major investments to set up proper waste management facilities, and also but more efficient waste processing.

A report published by the European Commission shows that EU research funding reaches 15% target for SMEs. The last months of 2011 saw a significant increase in the budget share allocated to SMEs. The goal set by the European Parliament and European Council for FP7 has been surpassed according to the report. The Commission also highlighted that Horizon 2020, will continue to support the competitiveness of SMEs.

A winner for each EU country was selected to the EU Young Translators' Contest. According to the European Commission, the winners demonstrate that a knowledge of languages can take you further and open your mind to new possibilities.

The European Cruise Council commits to pursue a high level of safety on board al their vessels and to support ongoing legislative review at EU and IMO. The Commission announced its strongly support to a passenger ship safety review at IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to ensure that European citizens can expect state of the art safety measures in place - no matter where they board a passenger ship.

The EU competition "Hands off my Design" has announced its winners for this edition. The competition is organised in order to draw attention on the cost that piracy has for the creative industry that estimates in €10 billion and more than 185,000 jobs in 2008 alone. The awards has been granted at an Award Ceremony held in the European Parliament.

Scientists concluded on the safety of silicone products manufactured by the Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) Company that data available was insufficient to lead to firm conclusions regarding the health risk for women with PIP silicone breast implants. However the Commission will discuss with the Member States a series of immediate measures to strengthen the existing surveillance and safety controls on medical devices already on the market.

The European Parliament approved a resolution on the newly-agreed governance treaty which insists that the treaty was unnecessary and economic recovery requires specific measures to promote solidarity, employment and growth. The resolution welcomes that the risk of a two speed EU was lessened and that there will be more parliamentary oversight than initially envisioned.

According to a resolution approved by the European Parliament, the next Daphne programme should be at least funded such as it has been funded so far in order to protect women and children against violence. MEPs also reiterates that the programme needs sufficient funding to tackle real needs, maintain current measures and introduce new ones.