European Union News

According to the latest data released by Eurostat, the euro area industrial new orders index rose by 1.9% and in the EU new orders increased by 0.4% in August 2011 compared with July 2011. Excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders rose by 0.7% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU.

The Commission is preparing to finalise plans for the launch of a "people-to-people" dialogue with China covering education, culture, youth and research. Its aim is to deepen understanding and mutual trust by supporting exchanges between the two strategic partners.

The Member States agreed to accelerate structural reforms in line with the recommendations made in the context of the European semester. The European Council identified a number of priorities which should be fast-tracked because of their significant impact on jobs and growth in the short to medium term. It also called for a stronger focus to the growth-enhancing aspects of the European Union's external policies in order to maximise their contribution to growth in Europe and to shape the conditions to attract more foreign investment.

Mercedes Bresso, CoR President, stressed the need of not leaving rural areas behind by the EU. According to Ms Bresso, reform proposals for EU regional policy and agriculture are a step in the right direction to close these development gaps. She made this statement at the congress organised by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Union of Rural Communes of the Republic of Poland within the framework of the Polish Council presidency.

The European Commission has put forward four measures in order to prevent dioxin contamination in the food chain. These measures will help to avoid food recalls from the market and financial costs to the consumers and industries due to food crises. They are expected to be implemented by mid 2012.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation to gather more information from companies and other affected parties, about the nature and scale of unfair commercial practices, including online scams. Further to this consultation, the Commission will assess how best to stop rogue traders exploiting loopholes in the rules and make sure that legitimate traders are effectively protected.

According to a special report published by the European Court of Auditors which examines the results of e-Government projects funded under the European Development Fund (ERDF) in four Member States, despite the projects are in fact already operational, the results obtained are much lower than expected. In light of this study, the Court makes some recommendations in order to improve the results in future projects.

The European Commission has announced the mobilization of an additional €24 million envelop to assist vulnerable people threatened by famine and the effects of drought in the Horn of Africa. The European Union is the largest humanitarian donor for the Horn of Africa, providing over €700 million in assistance since the beginning of the year, of which €184 million comes from the European Commission.

Once again, the European Commission has warned Member States about the risks they face for legal actions in the case of not applying the ban on un-enriched cages for laying hens, which will enter into force on 1 January 1 2012. This warning occurs comes after the fact that twelve years after the adoption of EU Directive, little progress was made in its implementation.

The European Parliament has selected as the three finalist for the Sakharov Prize of year 2011 a group of five activists from the Arab world, as well as Dzmitry Bandarenka and the San José de Apartadó Peace Community. The final winner of the Prize will be announced by the Parliament on 27 October.

Despite previous regulation on the provision of investment services in financial instruments facilitated a higher degree of competition and more choice for consumers, the financial crisis has underlined some of the shortcomings of such regulation. In order to overcome this deficiency and achieve more efficient, robust and transparent European financial markets, the European Commission has presented its proposals for revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.

According to a monitoring report released by the European Commission, G20 members still have to increase efforts in order to avoid protectionists behaviours in their trade relations. In its report, the Commission warns about the harmful effects of the introduction of new trade barriers and restrictive measures.