European Union News

The ministers of Defence of the European Union agreed on Wednesday to expand the objectives of Operation Atalanta to include control of Somali ports where pirate ships are based, as well as the possibility of "neutralising" the mother ships that allow the pirates to operate more than 1,000 km from the coast.

The England & Wales Court of Appeal has brought to the European Court of Justice a question referring to the Case C-495/09, where Nokia Corporation pleads its right for the seizure of counterfeit goods coming from a non-Member State to another non-Member State.

The Commission has made proposals to strengthen European Union's border management agency, Frontex. The proposals include reinforcing the legal framework to ensure full respect of fundamental rights during Frontex activities and enhancing the operational capacity of Frontex to support Member States.

Minimum maternity leave in the EU should be extended from 14 to 20 weeks and be fully paid, believe MEPs in the Women's Rights Committee. An entitlement to paid paternity leave of at least two weeks was also approved by the committee.

The General Affairs Council, which met on Monday in Brussels, chaired by the Spanish Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, carried out a political discussion into how to better defend the EU's positions in the upcoming climate meetings in Germany and Mexico.

The Commission together with the EU Presidency and the United States has hosted the second EU-US expert seminar on the security of explosives in Brussels on 17-18 February, which brought together over 100 experts from the EU Member States, the US, Europol and the European Defence Agency.

Four young Europeans proved their excellent knowledge on balanced diet and healthy lifestyle by answering successfully all questions of the on-line Treasure Hunt game, in the framework of the EU Healthy Eating Campaign, "The Tasty Bunch". The best Treasure Hunters Lara García de Veas Piñeiro (1 st Winner), Seamus Hickey (2 nd ), Francesca Martini and Silvia Vicari (3 rd ) will be awarded prizes involving sports and good cooking habits in four ceremonies held in Spain, Ireland and Italy.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on February 23th 2010 a Call for Proposals to support the transnational distribution of European films by Agents for the international sale of European cinema films, based on the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council  establishing a single pluriannual programme for Community actions in the audiovisual field for the period 2007-2013.

The ambassadors of Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania and Serbia in Spain have attended a briefing on the preparatory work for the Danube region strategy ahead of the summit meeting on 25 February in Budapest.

The Journal of Computer Security has launched a special issue highlighting the results of six projects funded under the 'Information society technologies' (IST) Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Municipal policies to tackle the crisis and their application at EU level will be discussed during the three days of the summit entitled, “Networked Local Governments for a New Europe”, which will bring together representatives from 260 cities in Barcelona.

The EESC backs enhanced administrative cooperation to combat VAT fraud. Tax fraud in the EU amounts to approximately 2 to 2.5% of GDP, i.e. between 200 and 250 billion EUR. The application of the current Regulation has been unsatisfactory, argues the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)