European Union News

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group will significantly step up its lending activities for the 2013 to 2015 period to support the recovery of growth in Europe, as announced by its President, Mr Werner Hoyer. The EIB thus will lend an additional €60 billion over the next three years to promote sustainable growth and jobs, bringing annual lending volumes to €65-70 billion.

The European Commission welcomed the European Court of Justice (ECJ)'s judgments which confirmed that Hungary and Spain have failed to comply with their obligations under EU law in the field of rail transport. On the other hand, Austrian and German rail transport legislation complies with EU law ruled in favour of the European. Although the Commission respects the Court's interpretation of the current law, it remains convinced that a more effective separation between an infrastructure manager and other rail operations is essential to ensure non-discriminatory access for all operators to the rail tracks, and thus to stimulate growth in the rail sector.

The European Commission welcomed the political agreement reached on the proposed Youth Guarantee Recommendation at the EU's Council of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers on 28th February. The Youth Guarantee implies that member states should put in place measures to ensure that young people up to age 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving school or becoming unemployed.

The Irish Presidency of the Council confirmed that on the 27 February, it reached a breakthrough in talks with the European Parliament on an overhaul of banking rules increasing EU financial stability. According to the Irish Presidency, the provisional deal includes restrictions on bankers pay to make sure that pay practices do not lead to excessive risk-taking. It also includes new provisions to making European banks more transparent.

The Environment Committee at the European Parliament backed a proposal to suspend temporarily the EU CO2 Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for intercontinental flights, so as to enable International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to agree worldwide measures. The ETS will continue to apply to flights between EU airports.

The European Commission announced the prohibition, on the basis of the EU Merger Regulation, of the proposed takeover of the Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus by the low-cost airline Ryanair. The Commission concluded that the merger would have harmed consumers by creating a monopoly or a dominant position on 46 routes where, currently, Aer Lingus and Ryanair compete vigorously against each other.

The results of a European Parliament latest opinion poll show that Europeans are increasingly interested in European affairs, while the economic crisis remains a key concern, as it has done since 2008.

A World Trade Organization panel report shows that China's anti-dumping duties on imports of X-ray security scanners from the EU were in breach of WTO anti-dumping rules. Thus, China will be expected to remove its anti-dumping duties on EU imports of X-ray security scanners, if the report is not appealed within 60 days.

The informal agreement reached between the Council and the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas operations was backed by the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council. To enter into force it still needs to be formally approved by the Parliament and by the Council - after the plenary vote in the Parliament.

The European Commission has proposed to amend five existing EU health and safety Directives on protection of workers from exposure to harmful chemicals to align them with the latest rules on classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals.

The European Commission is gathering views with regard to the new open data portal recently launched in beta version. According to this European institution, this new Data Portal provides access to open public data from the European Commission. The Commission also highlights that this Data Portal promotes and builds literacy around Europe’s data.

The European Commission is claiming a total of €414 million of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States. Under this latest decision, funds will be recovered from 22 member states. Because some of these amounts have already been recovered from the Member States the net financial impact of this decision will be some €393 million.