European Union News

The European Commission launched a call to action to companies, governments, educators, social partners, employment service providers and civil society to "turn the tide". Young Europeans should have the tools to enter digital careers or to create jobs as entrepreneurs. In particular, the Commission will collect pledges on new jobs, internships, training places, start-up funding, free online university courses and more.

The Internal Committee in the European Parliament endorsed an draft agreement with the Council to give customs officials at EU borders better tools to confiscate, store and destroy goods that infringe intellectual property rights.

The Internal Market Committee at the European Parliament backed the public procurement "concession" contracts in a vote held the 24 of January. According to MEPs, these "concession" contracts enable public authorities to transfer the economic risk of projects such as building roads bridges or sports arenas to the private sector. MEPs stressed that the attribution of a concession is not synonymous with privatisation of public services.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that Russia remained the EBRD’s biggest country of operations with over €2.5 billion invested in 2012, and Turkey becomes the second-largest country of operations for the EBRD in terms of annual business volume.

The European Commission presented a new package of measures to ensure the build-up of alternative fuel stations across Europe with common standards for their design and use. In particular, the Clean Power for Transport Package consists of a Communication on a European alternative fuels strategy, a Directive focusing on infrastructure and standards and an accompanying document describing an action plan for the development of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in shipping.

The European Commission presented a call asking experts from all fields to participate in shaping the agenda of Horizon 2020, the European Union's future funding programme for research and innovation. The groups will encourage dialogue between all levels of government, civil society and business from all EU Member States, and influence the direction of EU research and innovation funding from now until 2020.

The Agricultural Committee in the European Parliament adopted the texts which set position for negotiations with EU member states with regard to the EU farm policy reform. MEPs called in the text for a better redistribution of the EU funding, and making "greening" measures mandatory but flexible and better equip farmers to cope with market challenges.

The European Commission announced that an additional €332 million has been added to the 2012 TEN-T multi-annual programme, under the area of TEN-T Priority Projects. In addition, the deadline for proposal submissions has now been extended to 26 March 2013 for all six fields of the multi-annual work programme.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) launched a joint study with the aim to assess the Southern Mediterranean region’s capability to attract foreign investments for developing local renewable energy industries.

A fine of €66 894 000 on Telefónica and of €12 290 000 on Portugal Telecom were imposed by the European Commission for agreeing not to compete with each other on the Iberian telecommunications markets, in breach of the EU antritrust rules.

The 'Advanced Grants' from the European Research Council (ERC) were awarded in this occasion to 302 senior research leaders in 24 different countries across Europe. The European funding will allow these scientists to pursue their most ground-breaking ideas at the frontiers of knowledge together with their own teams.

The decision authorising 11 member states to proceed with the introduction of a financial transaction tax (FTT) through "enhanced cooperation" was adopted by the Council. 11 member states supports the Commission's proposal that involved a harmonised minimum 0.1% tax rate for transactions in all types of financial instruments except derivatives (0.01% rate).