European Union News

When Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, air transport officials launched a no-fly zone. Thus, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Iceland have created a protocol to give traffic authorities the help they need to quickly determine if planes should be grounded when ash threatens airspace safety.

The European Commission has requested Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain to apply the Third Capital Requirements Directive or CRD III and notify measures within two months to implement important rules concerning the capital adequacy and the remuneration policies of financial institutions.

The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou welcomed the “European Heritage Label” because according to her, it highlights sites that celebrate the history and development of the European Union. The first sites to receive the new Label will be announced in 2013.

The ELI ('Extreme light infrastructure') project, with European funds, aims to build a laser of intensity sufficient to rip photons into electron-positron pairs. This type of super laser could play a crucial role in the development of new cancer diagnosis and treatments, and could help fuel our understanding of molecular biology and nanoscience. It could also be used to resolve myriad issues that weigh heavily on the minds of environmentalists, like how to handle nuclear waste.

During the trilateral inter-institutional conciliatory negotiations over the package of six legislative proposals, which is aimed at strengthening the economic governance, the Council meeting authorised the Presidency to make a compromise proposal in the European Parliament.

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has an explicit competence to legislate on the rights of victims of crime. Thus, the European Commission is proposing a package of measures to ensure a minimum level of rights, support and protection for victims across the EU, no matter where they come from or live.

A operation realised as a joint investigation team between Europol, Bulgaria, Spain and Eurojust raided and dismantled a sophisticated counterfeit euro print shop on 13 May. The Bulgarian Police arrested six suspects and seized over half a million very high-quality counterfeit euro banknotes from print shops in Plovdiv and Parvomay (Bulgary).

The European Commission is seeking views from the public on how best to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags. Opinions will also be asked on increasing the visibility of biodegradable packaging products, and boosting the biodegradability requirements for packaging.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting (ECOFIN) held on 17 May welcomes the decisive steps taken to strengthen bank balance sheets as part of a comprehensive approach to ensure financial stability based on a new, transparent and strengthened EU-wide stress-test exercise. The ECOFIN in this regard welcomes that some banks have already taken measures to reinforce their capital base ahead of the publication of the stress test results.

According to the Petitions Committee's annual report, EU citizens are increasingly turning to electronic petitioning, with 63% opting for an on line application rather than mailing a petition. With regard to the topics, the environment and fundamental rights continued to be of most concern to EU citizens petitioning the Parliament in 2010. Besides, EP received a total of 1655 citizens' petitions last year.

The 17 May has been marked as the International Day Against Homophobia because the same day in 1990, the World Health Organisation finally removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. With regard this day, all European authorities made a statement.

EU ETS emissions increased in 2010 but remain well below pre-crisis level according to the Commission. To the Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, the emissions increase in 2010 reflects the economic recovery, but even after the economy coming back to normal, the EU ETS emissions remain well below the cap for the 2008-2012 trading period.