European Union News

The January edition of the European Vacancy Monitor shows that high skill levels remain important for employment opportunities. Additionally with regard to the young people in the EU and according to the report, almost half (48%) of all job-finders in 2010 (or around 20 million) were aged between 18 and 29 years old.

The proposal to improve water quality in the EU made by the Commission consists in adding 15 chemicals to the list of 33 pollutants that are monitored and controlled in EU surface waters. In this way, according to the Commission, it will be monitored and controlled new forms of chemical pollution in European rivers, lakes and coastal waters.

The third plenary of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) ended with the call on an innovative Euro-Mediterranean cohesion policy through the promotion of the access of local and regional authorities’ to ENP funding, the extension of the Covenant of Mayors to Southern Mediterranean cities and regions and the enforcement of territorial cooperation in strategic fields like sustainability and energy infrastructures.

The euro area Member States agreed that the signature on the new Treaty on stability will be in March. It will be legally binding as an international agreement. They also announced that the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism is ready for signature. European leaders also meet at the same time and they agree on the immediate actions to help promote growth and create jobs in Europe, which should focus in stimulating employment, boosting the financing of the economy, and completing the Single Market.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) published its results of his latest general survey of compliance with the Data Protection Regulation. According to Peter Hustinx, the EDPS, the results show that EU institutions and bodies have different levels of data protection compliance and he reminds that the implementation of data protection principles is not only a matter of time and resources, but also of organisational will.

The Commission has partially activated the new Union registry to enable access for aircraft operators. This means a further step in the implementation of the inclusion of aviation in the EU's emissions trading system (EU ETS).

The Erasmus programme celebrates its 25 anniversary under the theme 'Erasmus: changing lives, opening minds for 25 years', the silver anniversary celebrations'. In particular, more than 250 000 students will benefit from the Erasmus programme this academic year. The celebrations include events organised in the Member States and a conference in Brussels.

The Commission published the main results of a consultation on the European Research Area (ERA). The researcher community agreed on the need to attract and retain more leading researchers in Europe and to provide researchers with better and especially business-relevant skills, according to one of the major findings of the survey.

The International Trade Committee at the European Parliament gave its green light to the proposed EU concession to help put an end to the 20-year hormone beef trade war with the USA and Canada. The proposal implies to raise the EU import quota for beef from animals not treated with hormones. Thus, the regulation will allow third countries to sell the EU 48,200 tonnes of duty-free high-quality beef from animals not treated with growth-promoting hormones.

The proposals adopted by the Commission highlighted the role of trade as one of the key drivers to support development, stimulate growth and to lift people out of poverty. For this reason, it proposed a number of ways to improve the effectiveness of EU trade and development policy. In addition, the EU calls for all developed economies to match its significant levels of market access to developing countries.

The data on EU structural funds in 2011 published by the European Commission, show that the effective use of these funds gathered pace in 2011. EU structural funds in 2011 helped to further the Single Market through investments in a broad range of strategic and growth-enhancing areas, including broadband connections, research and development infrastructure, innovation projects, new Small- and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and education.

ITER, the world's biggest energy research project, has got an extra €1.3 billion funding for 2012 and 2013 following the agreement reached between the Council and Parliament. Thus, the Commission adopted a draft amending budget to meet the €650 million this year's contribution to the ITER project.