European Union News

According to the data released by the European Statistical Office Eurostat, the average unemployment rate registered in the Euro area reached 9.9% rate in June 2011, exactly the same percentage reached in May 2011. With regard to the unemployment rate in the whole EU, the rate was unchanged too from May, 9.4%. It was 9.7% in June 2010.

The European Commission launched a new database in order to improve access to information on unfair commercial practices. The website provides an extensive overview of national laws transposing the Directive, jurisprudence, administrative decisions and references to relevant literature.

Cedefop, the European Agency to promote the development of vocational education and training (VET) in the EU, presented its medium-term priorities which mainly focus in supporting modernisation of vocational education and training systems and continuing training, adult and work-based.

The Polish presidency convened a joint meeting of the two Council working groups on terrorism, the Terrorism Working Party (TWP) and COTER after the tragic events in Norway on 22 July 2011. The goal was to exchange information and analysis and to start the process of drawing the lessons of this tragedy in order to better prevent and respond to such attacks in the future.

The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the EU and the euro area declined in July, but remains above its long-term average. In the EU, it fell to 102.4 and to 103.2 in the euro area. In the EU confidence declined notably in industry, retail trade and among consumers, with marginal falls in services and an improvement in the construction sector. In the euro area the fall resulted from a decline in confidence in all sectors, with strong losses in industry and services.

The Commission wants to promote e-procurement in the EU with measures such as a call for applications for participation in a new, informal expert group on e-tendering or monitor the use of e-procurement across Member States. The aim of these measures is to help Member States to accelerate the switchover to e-procurement, and to enable suppliers to take part in online procurement procedures across the single market.

The European Commission published the decision to facilitate deployment of car radar system to boost road safety. This decision extends the authorisation to use the 24 GHz radio frequency band for short-range anti-collision radar in cars until 2018. Only 0.05 % of cars in Europe are equipped with such radar systems, which currently all use the 24 GHz band, and are mainly in luxury car.

The European Commission welcomed the publication of the sixth set covering 35 health claims on food products by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Now, the Commission will present by the end of the year a list of permitted health claims on food products for all substances other than the so-called "botanicals" based on the publication made by EFSA.

The Commission proposal of increase the EU support under the emergency plan for vegetable producers affected by the E-Coli crisis have been accepted by Member States. Accordingly, the budget will be increased from €210 to €227 million.

The ITFOM ('IT [information technology] future of medicine') project works in developing an innovative European network for personalised health care which could revolutionise health care. In addition, it could suppose a save on the health-care costs.

According to an annual update published by Eurofound, the actual working week of full-time employees was longer than the average normal collectively agreed working week in almost all EU Member States in 2010. In the EU, the actual working week was 39.7 hours in 2010, 1.7 hours longer than the agreed working week.

According to data provided by the statistical office of the European Union, the population of the European Union amounted 502.5 million on 1 January 2011, which means one million and a half in one year. The population increased in twenty Member States and decreased in seven, with considerable variations between Member States.