European Union News

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of the European Commission (ECHO) and 11 European Red Cross National Societies launched a campaign to raise awareness about silent emergencies. According to the IFRC, 91% of disasters they respond to are not reported by the media.

A new Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission shows that only 36% of respondents feel well informed about the rights that EU citizenship entails. Europeans are most familiar with their rights to free movement (88%) and to petition EU institutions (89%). Meanwhile two-thirds consider that free movement of people within the EU brings economic benefits to their country.

The European Commission published the Internal Market Scoreboard that shows how the EU average transposition deficit – the percentage of Internal Market Directives that have not been transposed into national law in time – has decreased from 6.3% in 1997 to a record new level of 0.6%.

€20 million crisis response and stabilisation support package for Mali has been allocated by the European Commission. At the same time, the Council launched the EU mission (EUTM) to support the training and reorganisation of
the Malian Armed Forces.

The Council held a policy debate on open access to scientific information of public-funded research projects. Member states agreed on the need to promote common implementation standards and criteria, including interoperable infrastructures, in order to achieve the maximum benefit from the open access in a sustainable way within a digital European Research Area.

The Joint Research Centre has conducted a series of measurements to check the efficiency of pedestrian dummies in testing autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems in conventional cars. Conclusions show that results of the 2 frequency bands do not show significant differences. However, in the higher frequency bands, the height of the pedestrian has a clearer effect on the RCS averages observed.

The European Commission presented a new EU initiative which intends to boost the fight against organised crime and human trafficking in Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova and Turkey. The Commission stressed that this project will promote regional cooperation on this issue through sharing information and best practice between countries and regions.

The European Commission published an updated guide to explain how EU rules in the fields of state aid, public procurement and the internal market apply to services of general economic interest (SGEI). For instance, under the new rules, a public service compensation of an amount below €500,000 per undertaking over three years is deemed free of state aid.

The European Commission is co-financing a plan to start immediately for one month that includes the establishment of the presence of unlabelled horse meat in foods, and the detection of possible residues of phenylbutazone in horse meat. Phenylbutazone is a veterinary medicinal product whose use in food producing animals, including horses, is illegal.

EU Education Ministers met on 15 February to discuss relevant issues concerning education in the context of the 2013 Annual Growth Survey. In response to the recent Commission communication "Rethinking Education", the Council invited member states to restructure their education systems, for instance creating closer links to labour market. The Council also stressed that there are areas of divergence with the European Parliament's position regarding the proposal for a regulation establishing "Erasmus for all".

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion which states that if the EU is to meet its energy and climate policy goals, it will need to adopt a common energy tax regime. The opinion suggested creating a common tax framework which would link the tax rate to the energy source and factor in CO2 emissions.

The European Commission proposed to the Council to give its green light for negotiations on a new international agreement on trade in services. Together, the 21 initial countries (WTO Members) participating in the negotiations represent more than two thirds of world trade in services. The EU wants to develop new rules on trade in services.