European Union News

The members of the Committee of the Regions reiterated their support for the proposed EU financial framework 2014-2020 in a plenary debate with Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski. Mercedes Bresso, President of the CoR stated that the EU budget was of crucial importance to help Europe recover from the devastating effects of the economic crisis and should not be reduced under its current level.

Parliament approved a non-legislative resolution which calls for a stronger role for the Commission to push through more harmonisation on the tax system in order to increase efficiency and a reduce red tape for businesses.

European Commission presented the 'Agenda for Change' of EU Development policy and a new policy for EU budget support Communications. These reports aims to set out a more strategic EU approach to reducing poverty, including through a more targeted allocation of funding.

European Commission presented its annual Enlargement Package in which it recommends the opening of accession negotiations with Montenegro, and granting EU candidate status to Serbia. On the package of reports it also assessed the progress towards EU accession made by the Western Balkans, Turkey, and Iceland over the past year.

The European Commission presented the composition of the high-level group which has as main goal to write a report that provides recommendations for the respect, protection, support and promotion of media freedom and pluralism in Europe. The group, which will be fully independent, will be chaired by the former President of Latvia, Professor Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.

The Committee of the Regions welcomed EU plans for more competitive and greener industry. European Commission Vice-President responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, underlined at the CoR plenary session, the key role of regional and local authorities in this process. He urged for a new industrial policy in a broader – and truly integrated – sense, to keep improving EU competitiveness.

The European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, presented a roadmap which is intended to restore confidence in the Euro area and the European Union as a whole. According to the Commission, this programme is created to clarify the doubts over the sustainability of sovereign debt, the stability of the banking system and the European Union's growth prospects.

The European Commission presented on October 12 a proposal to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which endorses a new partnership between Europe and its farmers. The project aims at making European agriculture more competitive, ensuring sustainable production, high food quality and promoting environmental conservation and revitalization of rural areas.

From the morning of October 11, 2011 the so-called Visa Information System (VIS) is already in operation. The treatment of biometric data from visa holders using VIS will allow a faster exchange of information and will help to improve identification procedures. The first consular posts to be connected to the system will be those of North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

At the celebration of the 9th edition of the Open Days, Mercedes Bresso, President of the Committee of the Regions defended the creation of a provisional intermediate category, which will be "intermediate" regions i.e. with a GDP of between 75% and 90% of the EU average, as it was proposed by the Commission.

Winners of the 2011 European Union Prize for Literature, which recognises the best new or emerging authors in the EU, were announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As in previous editions, each winner of the 3rd 2011 European Union Prize for literature will get 5000 euro and the opportunity to have their book translated into other languages to boost its cross-border appeal.

Every year European companies are estimated to be loosing around 26 billion euros of because of the obstacles caused by divergent regulations in contract law applying to sales between member states. In order to overcome some of these problems, the Commission has proposed common rules in sales law that will provide higher level of protection and facilitate transactions between member states.