European Union News

Although Italian and Spanish MEPs tried to push for the European Parliament not granting its consent for a common EU patent system to be created using the enhanced cooperation procedure, the Chamber has finally given its approval. The Plenary voted in favour of the proposal which now has to be also approved by the Council. Further to it, the European Commission will put forward two proposals, one for the language regime and another for establishing the single patent.

In a debate about the immigration emergency crisis which is going on in the South Mediterranean held at the European Parliament Plenary session, MEPs stressed that based on the principle of solidarity, EU Member States should provide immediate assistance and share the burden with Italy and the other countries affected by an extraordinary flow of immigrants from Northern Africa. For that reason, Commissioner Malmström, ensured that the EU will provide support to Italian authorities further to the request for assistance sent to FRONTEX on 15 February.

On 15 February 1000th quality food products are registered by the European Commission. The latest one has been an Italian sheep's cheese. On the other hand, Spain has 146 products in this record. In addition, the Commission considers these schemes essential for fast start-up of 'Quality Package 2010', by introducing several regulations that are bringing the production to the quality criteria demanded by consumers.

MEPs adopted by 504 votes in favour, 63 against and 89 abstentions, the regulation previously agreed by the European Parliament and the Council to consolidate the rights of assistance and compensation for all passengers travelling by bus or coach in the European Union. The new legislation will come into force from 2013. Member States have a period of two years from now to implement the regulation.

With a view to the presentation of the Commission's EU strategy for Roma inclusion, European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee outlined its priorities at its meeting on 14 February. These priorities include equal access to employment and education, protecting fundamental rights, better use of EU funding and involving Roma women in policy development.

Eurogroup members, meeting in Brussels prior to the celebration of the Council of Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin), decided on 14 February to increase the amount of the bailout fund that will integrate the permanent financial stability mechanism for the euro area. Under this decision, the mechanism which will come into force in 2013 will be supported by 500 billion euros.

This is one of the facts behind the data of a survey released by the European Commission which shows that three over four EU citizens are worried about the cost of using their mobile phone when travelling in the EU. Regarding mobile Internet-related services, not even 20% of Europens do consider that the costs of data-roaming for (Internet are fair. Based on these data, as well as the opinions sent within a recent consultation, the European Commission present the review of current EU roaming rules by June 2011.

The so-called European citizens' initiative, one of the main innovations under the Treaty of Lisbon, will enable citizens to ask the Commission to bring forward legislative proposals if  the supporters of an initiative number at least one million and come from a significant number of member states. On 14 February, the European Council adopted the Regulation to finally put this instrument into place.

The ERC Scientific Council has established a gender equality plan, based on the view that women and men are equally able to perform excellent frontier research. One of the main goals of this plan, which has been concluded by the ERC gender balance working group,  is to increase the number of female top researchers applying for ERC grants, by means of raising awareness.

Following former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, decision to step down, the European Union in a common statement from President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, welcomed his decision and renewed EU compromise towards the people of Egypt. In a first reaction to this historic event, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, stated that this is only a beginning of a long road to lasting change: a road of political transition in Egypt in full.

On 9 February the Internal Market and Services Directorate General of the European Commission launched a public consultation seeking stakeholders' views on proposed measures to strengthen bank capital requirements for counterparty credit exposures arising from derivatives, repo and securities financing activities. The measures are based on the work of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and will form part of the Commission's upcoming legislative proposal to implement Basel III reforms into EU law. Interested parties are invited to send their opinions by 9 March 2011.

Although telecoms rules require Member States to make their citizens aware of the 112 number, there is still a large number of EU citizens who still do not know this number which could save their lives. For that reason, on the European 112 Day, the European Commission recalls the need to increase Member States efforts to increase public awareness of the existence of this EU-wide service.