European Union News

The Culture and Education Committee at the European Parliament approved a resolution endorsing a deal with EU Member States to create the European Heritage Label. Under this deal, symbolic sites for Europe's history or integration will be eligible for this label in voluntary basis. This proposal aims to promote educational activities and to raise young people's awareness of Europe's common heritage and identity.

The ADITEC project has been launched with the funding of the European Union in order to speed up the development of novel and powerful immunisation technologies for the next generation of human vaccines has just got under way.

The European Commission published a report which shows the results of 305 purchases in 28 countries. Delivery from abroad has turned out to be reliable overall, with 94% of orders delivered (up from 66% in 2003) and only 1% of the products found to be faulty. But shoppers had more problems when returning the goods (as part of the EU-wide cancellation rights), for example with getting the full costs reimbursed.

The Council met on 4 of October and reached an agreement on a draft regulation aimed at increasing transparency and reducing risk in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. The Presidency of the EU, on behalf of the Council, will start negotiations with the European Parliament, with a view to reaching agreement at first reading.

The Council confirmed its agreement on economic governance. The Council will adopt the package without further discussion, once the texts have been finalised in all official languages following an agreement voted at the European Parliament reached after intensive negotiations.

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, and Ana de Hollanda, Minister of State of Culture of Brazil signed an agreement which consists in a four-year joint action plan focusing on cultural diversity, cultural heritage and the development of a sustainable cultural and creative economy.

The European Commission presented during the SME Week which is celebrating 3-9 October, its 2010 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) report "Are EU SMEs recovering from the crisis?". Although the report confirms that SMEs remain the EU's economic backbone, it also too early for a full-fledged SME recovery as employment by SMEs was still lagging behind.

According to the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mercedes Bresso, EU Eastern Partnership needs local and regional dimension. Ms Bresso presented at the Eastern Partnership summit, the recommendations from a recently launched dialogue with mayors and regional presidents from the neighbouring countries.

The debate held by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council showed a consensus on the need to make full use of the European Social Fund (ESF) in order to reach the EU 2020 objectives and to ensure a proper articulation of the ESF with other Structural Funds. In addition, the Council adopted conclusions on the role of voluntary work in social policy.

According to the Budgetary Control Committee at the European Parliament, the European Police College (CEPOL) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) should be granted a discharge for the way in which they managed their funding in financial 2009, but the Council of Ministers should not

On the World Heart Day, celebrated on 29 of September, has been the day in which the European Commission took stock and reflect on some of the research projects into cardiovascular health research it funds. Research into cardiovascular diseases under the 'Health' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) has seen around €215 million fund 33 different projects. These projects mainly focus on generating knowledge for improving diagnosis, prevention, treatment and monitoring of diseases of the heart and circulatory system.

Two public consultations related to access for alternative operators to the fixed telephone and broadband networks of established operators have been launched by the European Commission. The first consultation concerns more in particular the non-discriminatory access for alternative operators to the infrastructure and services of dominant telecom operators. The second concerns the way national regulators calculate prices that operators have to pay for this wholesale access (cost-orientation remedies).