European Union News

Jean-Claud Juncker, current Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the President of the Eurogroup highlighted in a statement that although the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) continues to be assigned the best possible credit rating by Moody’s (Aaa) and Fitch (AAA), it is need to investigate the Standard and Poor's to downgrade its credit rating from AAA to AA+.

The European Defence Agency presented the European Defence Standards Reference system (EDSTAR) portal which replaces the European Handbook for Defence Procurement (EHDP). The new portal contains references to “Best practice” standards and "standard-like" specifications. EDSTAR is to be used by governmental organisations and defence industry for the procurement of defence materiel (including development and production).

The Eurobarometer presented by the European Parliament shows that 49% of Europeans interviewed felt that Parliament should focus first on the fight against poverty and social inclusion. The survey also found that 40% of Europeans would like to receive more information from the European Parliament on possible ways to tackle the crisis.

According to a study published by Science and co-authored by the Joint Research Centre, a limited number of air quality measures can substantially mitigate global warming and have significant benefits for human health and agriculture. In particular, the scientists identified 14 emission control measures that, according to the study, can best help to limit global warming and improve health and food security in the coming decades.

According to the results of a Commission's study, 85% of net new jobs1 in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Overall, the employment growth for SMEs (with 1% annually) was higher than for large enterprises with 0.5%. A clear exception is the trade sector, in which employment in SMEs increased by 0.7% annually, compared to 2.2% in large enterprises.
 

The biannual information on euro banknote counterfeiting shows that the overall quantity of counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in 2011 was 19.3% lower compared with the figures for 2010. In addition, the European Central Bank also announced that the number of monetary financial institutions in the euro area and in the EU decreased further in 2011.

The European Commission presented a new Eurobarometer survey in which it assures that Europeans are ready for 'active ageing'. In particular, over 60% believe that we should be allowed to continue working after retirement age and one third says that they would like to work longer themselves. For most citizens, people aged 55 years and older play a major role in key areas of society.

The measure proposed by the European Commission intends to deliver One Stop Shop for all electronically delivered services. According to the Commission, as from 1st January 2015, it will benefit businesses dealing with multiple VAT obligations that can be very burdensome and costly. The One Stop Shop approach for EU trade across borders will be applied first to e-commerce, broadcasting and telecom services. In the future the Commission will seek to extend the One Stop Shop to other goods and services.

According to a recent published Commission's report, if the EU waste legislation is fully implemented, it would save €72 billion a year, increase the annual turnover of the EU waste management and recycling sector by €42 billion and create over 400,000 jobs by 2020.

Eurostat published its latest statistics on the active ageing in the EU which show that the employment rate for persons aged 60-64 increased from 23% in 2000 to 31% in 2010 and from 50% to 61% for those aged 55-59. With regard to the statistics by country, the share of those aged 55 and over varied between 21% in Ireland and 33% in Germany and Italy in 2010.

A Commission's report recently published which provides an outlook on agricultural commodity market developments, shows that the agricultural commodity prices are expected to stay firm over the medium term.

MEPs at the Civil Liberties Committee debated on the concerns as to whether the laws implementing Hungary's new constitution are compatible with EU rules and values. Some MEPs favoured awaiting the European Commission's analysis of the laws, while some MEPs proposed a "fundamental rights check" to determine whether there is a risk of a serious breach of EU values.