European Union News

Following G-20 recommendations about the need to establish common frameworks for prevention and crisis management, the Commission has published a Communication outlining its plans for an EU framework for crisis management in the financial sector. The plan foresees preparatory and preventive measures, as well as powers for remedies and resolution tools for authorities to apply in crisis situations.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on 20 October 2010, the Directive 2010/66/EU modifying the deadline for submission of applications for refund of value added tax which amends Directive 2008/9/EC laying down detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State.

The Plenary session of the European Parliament gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for EU funding for 3,731 workers in Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark. The money will go to people who became redundant following to the closure of their companies.

The European Commission has adopted a strategy to ensure that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is fully respected by verifying that all community law comply with the Charter at each stage of the legislative process, from the early preparatory work to the application by Member States. Commission will also provide information to citizens on when it can intervene in fundamental rights issues and will publish an Annual Report on the Charter’s application to monitor the progress achieved.

The European Commission is investing in a research project to develop new systemic risk indicators for “early warning systems” that could alert governments and bankers to impending financial crises in the earliest stages and take early action to stop them from spreading. Researchers from universities in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, experts at Yahoo! and the European Central Bank will investigate how financial institutions are exposed to systemic risk as a result of complex, highly inter-connected digital information and transaction systems.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, congratulates Switzerland for making an outstanding effort to deliver its share on time. When completed, the Gotthard base tunnel will form part of a larger trans-Alpine rail system, which currently includes the Lötschberg base tunnel and, later, will be completed by the Brenner and the Mont Cenis base tunnels.

In a bid to investigate how the climate has changed over time, scientists have often turned to ice cores, lake sediments and tree rings. But now researchers from France and the United Kingdom have discovered another, albeit unusual resource, that is shedding new light on climate change, especially in drier areas: ancient animal urine. The team received a grant from the European Research Council for their study.

The European Commission has launched on 18 October an open consultation about e-procurement in order to gather opinions from stake-holders and Member States to speed up and facilitate the procurement process. The Green Paper identifies some of the obstacles for e-procurement and sets out options for overcoming these challenges including, for example, regulatory incentives, standardisation and inter-operability solutions. Interested parties may submit their opinions until 16 January 2011.

Marking the celebration of the International Day for the eradication of Poverty, around eighteen representatives of philosophical non-confessional organisations met in Brussels on 17 October with President José Manuel Barroso, Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council. They discussed effective ways of combating poverty and social exclusion as an imperative for European governance.

Europeans are becoming increasingly "digital" according to a European Commission Eurobarometer survey which questioned 27,000 households throughout the EU on their use of internet, telephones and TV. More Europeans are subscribing to broadband internet and digital television in fixed-cost bundled 'packages'.

Ministers meeting at the Environment Council held in Brussels on 14 October, exchanged views over Commission proposals to allow member states to restrict the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their territory. Among other issues ministers debated over the consequences of this proposal as regard to WTO internal rules, and the possible fragmentation which it may cause within the internal market.

Real time maps of air, ground and water pollution can now be made available to everyone thanks to an EU-funded research project called INTAMAP. The INTAMAP project has developed open specifications software to draw up contour maps that not only show the exact location of polluted areas but also illustrate where pollution is coming from and where it is headed. Such information enables public authorities to decide more quickly on appropriate action to tackle the source of the pollution and allows individuals to avoid it. Researchers from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece.