European Union News

According to the provisions of the Directive 2011/24/EU on Patients' Rights in Cross-border Healthcare, the European Commission has adopted a Decision establishing the eHealth Network. The Network will bring together the national authorities responsible for eHealth on a voluntary basis to work on common orientations for eHealth.

According to Autumn 2011 Standard Eurobarometer, Europeans still consider the European Union as the most effective actor in giving solutions to the crisis. About 23% of European citizens see the EU more effective in tackling the effects of the crisis than national governments and international organizations. All this despite general confidence has fallen significantly.

The European Commission has adopted a series of guidelines aimed to ensure that different premiums for men and women are not included in insurance policies. These guidelines are a response to the call from different stakeholders for practical guidance on the implications of a recent ruling from the European Court of Justice who declared these clauses contrary to EU law.

A German-US team of scientists has demonstrated how threshold values for wildfires exist and could help to set standards in order to improve predictions about how and when these fires can change. These findings put forward by EU-funded project PATRES may also help to reconsider fire fighting strategies.

In order to provide an answer for the call from stakeholders to substantially simplify the European research framework programme, the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry commissioned a benchmarking and impact assessment study. As a result some overall benefits have been identified in providing output based funding that could lead to better results and support the achievement of FP7 and FP8 policy objectives.

The European Commission has decided to grant additional aid for countries where less progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This additional aid granted by the European Union will target 36 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and will focus on reducing hunger, child mortality, improve maternal health and access to water.

The proposal for the next European Statistical Programme 2013-17 presented by the European Commission intends to get quality, timely and efficient statistics. In order to achieve this goal, the Commission proposes a budget of €299.4 million and the implementation by the European Statistical System (Eurostat and national statistical institutes) of the multiannual programme.

The Environment Committee at the European Parliament voted in favour to take out of the next phase of trading the Emissions Trading System (ETS) credits in order to help lift the sinking carbon price. In addition, MEPs also voted on measures aiming to get the EU on track to meet its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020.

The Council has confirmed an agreement with the European Parliament on a draft regulation on technical requirements for credit transfers and direct debit transactions in euros. This agreement with the Parliament paves the way for adoption of the regulation in first reading.

An independent Identification Committee is consulting the research community in Europe on potential candidates for membership of the ERC Scientific Council. Contributions to this consultation should be sent by the 30 March 2012.

The European Commission adopted a revised package of EU state aid rules for the assessment of public compensation for services of general economic interest (SGEI). With this new package, the Commission intends to clarify key state aid principles and introduces a diversified and proportionate approach with simpler rules for SGEIs. The responsible for the Committee of the Regions considers that on the overall approach to public services, much work remains to be done.

The European Commission proposes to modernise the European public procurement Directives in order to support growth and employment. In addition, as a part of an overall programme to modernise public tendering in the EU, the Commission presented a Directive on concessions.