European Union News

The European Parliament will once again mark "Earth Hour" by switching off lights in all its buildings for on Saturday 26 March from 20.30h to 21.30h. This initiative, which begun in Sydney in 2007, is a global environmental actions aimed to raise awareness of the need to take act on climate change.

The European Commission proposed on 24 March a series of measures intended to provide sugar operators in the EU with predictability for the next marketing year starting from October 2011. The package fixes a quantitative limit for the exports of out-of-quota sugar and isoglucose for the marketing year 2011/12. It also includes the opening of an import quota of 400.000 tonnes for industrial sugar. With these measures, sugar operators received a strong signal that it is attractive to grow and produce sugar.

Many important economic decisions were taken by EU Heads of State and Government at the Council Summit held on 24 March. EU leaders decided on a comprehensive package of economic measures aimed at ensuring economic stability within the European Union. The new Euro Plus Pact will provide a new quality of economic coordination. The pact will remain open for any country to join and, for the moment on, six non-euro countries have decided to join it.

In order to further limit possible risks to the safety of its Food Chain, the European Union decided to reinforce controls on imports of food and feed from certain regions of Japan, where production could be affected by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Although on-line gambling business has experienced a fast development in Europe over the last years, with almost 15,000 websites already identified, there are still many differences in regulations among Member states. Analysing the differences and determining how they work would be key to determine how these differing models can co-exist within the Internal Market. For that purpose the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the Green Paper on on-line gambling in the Internal Market, to gather the opinions from all interested parties.

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the EU Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and Hungarian Prime minister Viktor Orban – for the Presidency of the Council – have met at the Tripartite Social Summit with European workers' and employers' representatives. The Tripartite Social Summit meets twice a year, ahead of the spring and autumn European Councils and is an important opportunity for institutions and social partners to exchange views.

According to a Eurobarometer survey about two-thirds of EU car users said it was likely they would compromise on a car's speed in order to reduce emissions. Furthermore, more than half motorists  agreed with existing car charges being replaced by new charging schemes based on the actual use of their vehicle and, while most users choose to drive a car because of its convenience, nearly three quarters of EU citizens said they would consider using public transport more frequently if it would be possible to buy a single ticket covering all transport modes.

The European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the International Maritime Organization launched on 22 March a study under the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) on maritime cooperation in the Mediterranean. The study will address key issues for promoting the maritime sector in the Mediterranean by identifying and disseminating best practices major axes.

The Council of the European Union adopted on 23 March 2011 legislation in order to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 which broadened the scope of the restrictive measures against Libya imposed by previous Resolution 1970 and introduced further measures. The assets freeze is extended to new entities, including the National Oil Corporation and also to five subsidiaries of the NOC designated autonomously by the EU.

The European Parliament has backed on 23 March a limited Treaty change to allow the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism in the euro area. MEPs welcomed the positive signals given by the Member States on bringing the intergovernmental mechanism closer to the EU framework.

Representatives of the European Union and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) initialled a comprehensive Association Agreement.

Although many Europeans are not aware of it, the right to ask assistance from any EU consulate or embassy when their Member State is not represented in one country, is part of their rights as EU citizens. Those citizens facing crisis or disaster situations such as those lived in Japan, Libya or Egypt can ask for consulate or embassy assistance, and can also do so in more usual situations such as passport theft or serious accidents.