European Union News

In a report approved in the plenary session, MEPs asked to get “EU” status on Energy infrastructure projects. In addition, they also asked to finance them through a EU project bonds. Among the projects suggested as a priority, those which connects energy islands with the rest of the grid, reducing network losses and single supplier dependency and integrating renewable energy sources into the network.

The proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in Compañía Española de Petróleos S.A (CEPSA), a Spanish integrated oil and energy company, by International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi has been cleared by the European Commission.

The European Parliament approved in the plenary session the last amended budget by a large majority. On the report approved, the EU Member States' contributions to this year's budget will be cut by a total of €4.54 billion.

CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service, has just launched a new Partners Service, designed to help users to promote expertise and organisations, find business or research partners, create groups, join networks and find the right components for funding bids and proposals.

The 2010 Lázaro Award for research on public sector auditing has been granted in its first edition jointly to Sara Belleil and José Antonio Fernández Ajenjo. This award has the aim of developing further its links with the academic community and helping the development of public audit in Europe.

The EU closes accession negotiations with Croatia, which should allow for the signature of the Accession Treaty by the end of the year. The accession is foreseen for 1 July 2013, following the ratification procedure in all Member States and Croatia.

A EU funded research seeks restructuring air traffic across the region to meet the challenges head on. Current systems oblige pilots and air traffic controllers to communicate verbally. With this new technology would generate digitalised information, giving multiple user groups like ground crews access to information. The upshot is that shorter flight times, fewer delays and a better flow of information between airline and airport personnel will result.

The CoR believes that the European Commission has presented an ambitious, well integrated proposal budget proposal post 2013. Indeed, according to the CoR most of the proposals made by the Committee in its opinions on the budget review and the future cohesion and agricultural policies have been taken on board.

The European Commission adopted a proposal for a Framework Regulation for macro-financial assistance (MFA). The proposed Framework Regulation aims to make MFA faster and more effective by speeding up decision-making for individual MFA operations. MFA is a financing instrument under which exceptional financial assistance is granted to third countries close to the EU that are experiencing balance-of-payments difficulties.

The Committee of the Regions adopted an opinion in which calls for a multi-level, cross-border approach to the management of river basins in order to ensure the sustainable use of water. The Committee also proposed extending the Covenant of Mayors to include sustainable water use.

The European Commission adopted a series of proposed changes to staff rules which would lead to savings of more than €1 billion by 2020. Among the changes proposed, a 5% reduction of staff in all categories in all institutions over the period 2013-17.

The European Commission has launched the pan-European “Ex-smokers are unstoppable” campaign. The campaign is aimed at smokers aged between 25 and 34 representing almost 28 million people in the EU and will focus on the positive effects of stopping smoking. The campaign further provides smokers with practical help with quitting, through the innovative "iCoach".