European Union News

A three day conference will take place to mark the closure of the MED-PACT programme and kick-off the successor CIUDAD (Cooperation in Urban Development and Dialogue) programme.

The investment of €123 billion through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) between 2000 and 2006 has had a clear impact in the regions. An estimated 1.4 million jobs were created during this period, 2 000 km of motorways were built and 14 million people drink better water thanks to EU supported projects.

Some of the world's top neurodegenerative disease experts gathered in Stockholm, Sweden on 15 April to start working on a pan-European research agenda that will guide the work of the new Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND). The JPND is the first Joint Programming initiative to get underway, and its launch marks a step change in the way research is funded and coordinated in Europe.

The Spanish Secretary of State for the EU and the Vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, met on Sunday afternoon with Eurocontrol to find out first hand the evolution of the volcanic cloud that has forced the closure of most of the airports in Northern Europe.

Students from all over Europe become EESC Members for one day. On 16 April the European Economic and Social Committee will host a day-long mock plenary session attended by over one hundred secondary school students and their teachers from the 27 EU countries.

Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, will put the spotlight on the development of a European Strategy for the Danube Region, as closing speaker of a major conference, taking place next week 19 to 21 April in Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia). This conference is the third in a series of broad consultation events aimed at shaping plans for the Strategy, which seeks to improve environmental conditions and develop the huge economic potential of the Danube Region.

The European Commission and Europa Nostra have announced 29 winners from 15 countries for the 2010 Edition of the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards.

The European Commission has earmarked €21 million for two new research projects on cancer, as part of an international research effort coordinated since 2007 by the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), which aims to elucidate comprehensively the changes in the human genome - the organism's hereditary information including genes - present in many forms of cancer. Understanding these mutations is paramount for advancing prevention, early detection, monitoring and treatment of a disease which killed 7.5 million people worldwide in 2007.

All the member states have agreed to promote a European programme to facilitate labor mobility of young people with the goal of halving youth unemployment by adapting Erasmus programme to the labour market.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) willing to participate in the cooperation activities embodied within the Erasmus Programme as part of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP), can already apply for their Erasmus University Charter. According to the Specific Call for Proposals published in the OJEU, those institutions must submit their proposals by June 30th 2010.

The number of dangerous consumer products notified through the EU's rapid alert system for non-food dangerous products RAPEX rose by 7% in 2009 compared to 2008, as shows the Commission's annual RAPEX report. This rise from 1866 notifications in 2008 to 1993 last year shows that the capacity of the RAPEX system has increased again in 2009, following more effective market surveillance by Member States.

Over the next 4 years, more than 60 researchers from 15 countries will work together to improve the coastal management of the Mediterranean Sea. For the first time under the one research agenda, the EU-funded project will undertake an all-inclusive study of the sea, its coasts and marine ecosystems in a bid to build consensus on the future governance and prosperity of the ailing basin.