European Union News

With this formal ratification, the European Union becomes for the first time in history a party to an international human rights treaty: the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which aims to ensure that people with disabilities can enjoy their rights on an equal basis with all other citizens. This text is the first comprehensive human rights treaty to be ratified by the Union as a whole.

In its recent report about the application of 2004 Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, the European Commission highlights the important progress which has been achieved since it was adopted and implemented in the Member States. However, Commission also points out the important increase in the economic value of IPR infringements and the need to pay attention to certain issues such as the observance of procedures, legal proceedings and protective measures, as well as taking into account the changes introduced by the Internet and digital technologies.

Following the requirements laid down in the new Regulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging, more than 3 million notifications have been submitted by chemicals manufacturers and importers to the European Chemical Agency by the deadline. This classification aims to better protect human health and the environment, by determining whether a chemical is dangerous and the information on the labels of chemicals that workers and consumers use.

The Committee of the Regions presented by the end of December 2010 a programme of events in the pipeline for 2011, where as it has been the case in previous years the OPEN DAYS to be held in October will play a central role. This year, in addition to the events linked to the six Plenary sessions, there will also be some sessions and fora dedicated to some of the key issues of the year within EU agenda, as well as a number of other major events in cooperation with the incoming Presidencies.

The European Commission website for Community Research and Development Information, CORDIS, has launched a new search tool which intended to facilitate the search and access to all the contents of the web. This search tool will continue to be upgraded during the beta phase introducing new features which will include the opinions and suggestions made by users of the service.

The new Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation (DG DEVCO) formally began its work on 3 January 2011. Headed by Mr. Fokion Fotiadis, this new Directorate will be responsible for designing European development policy and for delivering aid throughout the world.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on 29 December 2010 Council Regulation (EU) Nº 1259/2010 of 20 December 2010 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the law applicable to divorce and legal separation. This rule which will provide higher legal certainty for international couples, represents the first application of the enhanced cooperation mechanism within the Lisbon Treaty.

Incompatibility of chargers for mobile phones is not only a major inconvenience for users, but also a considerable environmental problem. In order to solve this situation, the European Commission called in 2009 for an agreement in order to harmonise chargers for data-enabled mobile phones. Following this mandate, the European Standardisation Bodies CEN-CENELEC and ETSI have now made available the harmonised standards required for the manufacture of data-enabled mobile phones compatible with a new common charger.

The European External Action Service will enter a new phase on 1 January 2011 with the transfer of staff from Council and Commission. 1643 permanent officials will be part of the new service, completing the fully implementation of this service introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, which was launched on 1 December 2010.

On the 1st January 2011, Estonia will have two reasons for celebration. At the same time the country will become the seventeenth country in the Euro area, its capital city, Tallinn, will become the European Capital of Culture. To mark both these events, an opening ceremony featuring an evening concert and fireworks will take place in the city.

The number of forest areas in Europe facing the onslaught of climate and land use changes, including fires, winds and droughts, is on the rise. For that reason, a concern that weighs on the minds of many Europeans is how to determine which trees adapt best to climate change, something the EU funded project MOTIVE ('Models for adaptive forest management') is trying to answer, by investigating the impact of intensified competition for forest resources given the changes to the climate and land.

As part of its review of the EU working time Directive, the European Commission launched on 21 December the mandatory second stage of consultation with workers' and employers' representatives at EU level. It also presented a detailed Report on the legal implementation of the Working Time Directive in Member States.