European Union News

Only one day after the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and president of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) sat before the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in his inaugural hearing, the Official Journal of the EU published a Call for expressions of interest for external experts to be appointed as members of its Advisory Scientific Committee. Further to this selection, 15 members of the Committee will be appointed in order to advice the ESRB.

Although children are younger and younger when they start using new technologies, surfing the web and holding their own profiles in social networks, they are in many cases unaware about the dangers they can face and how to avoid them. For that purpose, the European Commission has announced on the Safer Internet Day 2011 celebrated on 8 February, the opening of a debate with the most relevant actors in this sector in order to protect and safeguard children in the net.

The Official Journal of the European Union published in 8 February 2011, the Committee selection results for the award of three grants by the European Investment Bank within the framework of the EIB-University Research Sponsorship Programme. In this occasion the three selected candidates are Universities from Luxembourg, Germany and Portugal.

In order to increase road safety, all new types of passenger cars and small delivery vans will now have to be equipped with Daytime Running Lights (DRL). These special lamps which automatically switch on when the engine is started act as safety device as they substantially raise the visibility of motor vehicles for other road users. In case of trucks and buses, this obligation will apply from August 2012 onwards.

Among the priority issues included in the agenda for Heads of State and Government meeting at the Council of the EU on 4 February, the debate focused on the future of innovation in the European Union. In their conclusions, EU leaders underlined that investing in education, research, technology and innovation is a key driver of growth, and that innovative ideas will help create growth and quality jobs.

The European Personnel Selection Office published on 4 February the results of the first new open competition to select generalist graduate 'Administrators' launched on 2010 as part of a programme of modernisation of the EU Institution selection procedure. This new procedure has allowed to speed up the selection process and reduce it from an average 2 years procedures to approximately 10 months.

The European Commission has announced the names of the 27 winners of its annual ‘Juvenes Translatores’ Young Translators' Contest, which this year has registered a record participation with around 3,000 17-year-old secondary school pupils sitting the contest. This represents more than 25% participation than last year's as well as more schools applying to take part, more than 1.600 compared to 1430 last time. The winners, one from each EU country, will be invited to an award ceremony in Brussels on 7 April.

Only one day after the European Parliament's questioning of EU attitude and its inability to develop an effective and genuine foreign policy, EU Heads of State and Government have called on all parties to show restraint and avoid furtherviolence, and begin an orderly transition to a broad based government. In their declaration, member states has also given instructions to High Representative Ashton regarding actions to be adopted.

The European Commission has launched on 4 February a public consultation in order to seek opinions regarding collective redress measures in the European Union. The Commission aims to identify common legal principles which should underpin collective actions across the EU, such as the need for effectiveness and efficiency, information for citizens and safeguards against abusive litigation. The outcome of this public consultation, which is open until the end of April 2011, will determine if further regulation is required.

While EU Heads of State and Government debated in Brussels about the future of EU energy policy and the ways to ensure safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy for Europe, the Open Knowledge Foundation presented its project Europe's Energy. Thanks to this portal citizens will have access to a set of visual tools to put these targets into context and to understand and compare how progress is being made towards them in different countries.

The European Commission has announced which countries and regions will lead priority areas of work of the Strategy for the Danube Regions, which aims to develop the huge economic potential of the Danube river. This Strategy will aim at a strong cooperation between countries, making a more optimal use of all EU funding available. I will focus on eleven concrete priority action areas, such as the improvement of navigability, water quality, security cooperation and the opportunities for tourism.

European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee has backed Commission's proposal which establishes that the proposed single permit should be enough to enable third-country workers to live and work in the European Union and therefore allowing Member States to issue additional documents would defeat the whole purpose of the single permit. In their decision, members of the Committee backed the original Commission text on this and confirmed December's plenary vote on the employment issues.