European Union News

The European Commission published on 29 October its Guidelines for wind energy development in protected natural areas. These guidelines will apply to the Natura 2000 network, a cornerstone of EU biodiversity policy and a key tool to achieve the EU target of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2020.

The Heads of State and Government from the European Union, meeting in Brussels for the Autumn European Council, emphasized the need to reach a legally binding agreement on climate. In their conclusions, EU leaders underlined that it has become increasingly urgent to make progress in tackling climate change.

A new European Heritage Label could be awarded to monuments, natural, archaeological, urban or cultural sites that have played a significant role in European history and culture or in European integration, after the EP Committee on Culture and Education voted unanimously on Wednesday to back such a scheme.

The European Commission acted on 28 October to ensure fair access to public contracts by referring the Czech Republic to the Court of Justice for not complying with its obligation to award public supply contracts on the basis of public tenders. Commission's decision affects the contract for the purchase of four military tactical transport aircraft CASA-295M by Czech authorities.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has published a report analysing some issues about racism, ethnic discrimination and social exclusion of  of migrants and minorities in sport. The report shows that although improvement has been achieved, little attention is still paid to the fact that minorities and migrants are underrepresented in sport, particularly in the management positions of sport organisations.

The first session of the European Council held in Brussels on 28 October, ended with an agreement from Heads of State and Government to explore the way for a limited change in the Treaty of Lisbon, in order to introduce a permanent crisis mechanism. They also endorsed the final report of the Task Force and discussed over the measures to be put in place in order for the EU to ensure preparedness and reaction for any future economic risk.

The selection procedure for next year's European Charlemagne Youth Prize was launched on 27 October. The prize is awarded to young people who have been involved in projects to promote understanding between people from different European countries. The deadline for submitting projects for next year's prize, the fourth since it came into being in 2008, is 23 January 2011.

The European Commission has looked back in time and analysed the development and challenges faced by the European Single Market with the purpose to put forward a series of measures which will help companies, consumers and workers to fully enjoy its benefits. For that reason, the European Commission has presented the Single Market Act and has open a debate on these measures with all interested parties.

EU-funded researchers have kick-started an innovative project that aims to resolve semantic interoperability issues currently impacting cloud platforms and introduce a user-centric approach for applications that are built upon and deployed using cloud resources.

The president of the European Film Academy, German director Wim Wenders, highlighted at a public hearing at the Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education, the role which culture, and specially cinema, can play in building a shared European identity. Mr Wenders pointed out that Europe is often perceived by its citizens as a political, economic and bureaucratic structure with little place for culture.

The European Commission has adopted what will be its working priorities for year 2011 in a Programme highly focused in ensuring a sustained recovery. This programme translates the general objectives into concrete actions and  reflects the Commission’s determination to lead Europe out of the crisis.

The European Parliament and the Council started negotiations over EU's annual budget on 27 October. Under the new budget procedure, Parliament and Member States have three weeks to reach an agreement. Failure to do so could mean that the EU will have to work with the same budget in 2011 as in 2010, on a month-by-month basis.