European Union News

The European Environment Agency (EEA) took stock of the 2012, ‘European Year of Water’, and also presented important findings in many other areas, including air, climate, biodiversity and chemicals. According to EEA, Europe needs to redouble efforts to keep sufficient quantity and quality of fresh water to maintain our ecosystems that sustain our society and economy.

The European Commission allocated additional EU funding for Ukraine for 2012. The support is part of the Eastern Partnership and will focus on energy reform and the involvement of citizens in local development. This is the second part of the Annual Action Programme 2012 for Ukraine. The first part of the programme was adopted in August 2012 and amounted to €70 million.

The European Commission has concerns that transatlantic cooperation of Lufthansa, United and Air Canada may harm premium passengers on the Frankfurt-New York route because it could result in higher prices, in breach of EU antitrust rules. The Commission has therefore invited interested parties to comment on commitments proposed by the three companies to address competition concerns about their transatlantic cooperation.

The European Commission announced the allocation of €84,8 million in Bosnia and Herzegovina to support reforms necessary to help the country move forward on its path towards European integration.

A new report showed that the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector is one of the most research intensive sectors in the EU economy. In 2009 the ICT sector accounted for 17% of the EU's total business R&D expenditure, while only representing 4% of the EU's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This share of GDP - stable over the last few years - amounted to a value added of €470 billion in 2009 and represented over 6.1 million jobs.

The European Commission's 2012 State Aid Scoreboard revealed that the volume of national support to the financial sector actually taken by banks between October 2008 and 31 December 2011 amounted to around €1.6 trillion (13% of EU GDP). Moreover, reflecting both a low uptake by companies and the budgetary constraints of most EU Member States, support to the real economy on the basis of temporary crisis rules dropped to €4.8 billion in 2011, a fall of more than 50% compared with 2010.

The European Commission adopted a new programme to support cooperation on police services between the EU and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) neighbouring countries. The Eastern Partnership Police Cooperation Programme is designed to reflect the required reforms of the law enforcement sector to support progress towards deep and sustainable democracy within the European Neighbourhood region.

The European Commission sent a Statement of Objections with its preliminary view that Samsung's seeking of injunctions against Apple in various Member States on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents ("SEPs") amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.

The European Commission approved a request from the Spanish authorities to extend the temporary restriction on access for Romanian workers to the Spanish labour market until 31 December 2013 due to serious disturbances on its labour market due to serious disturbances on its labour market. As from 1 January 2014, temporary restrictions on the free movement of Romanian and Bulgarian workers must be lifted in all Member States.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) published a report which shows that households and industry in the EU were largely responsible for the emissions increase in 2010, together leading to an additional 90 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent compared to 2009. Households and industry in the EU each cause approximately a quarter of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a loan agreement with Banco de Sabadell to finance the investment projects of SMEs and midcaps. The projects eligible for financing will mostly be located in Spain and to a lesser degree in other EU countries. EIB and Banco de Sabadell will contribute with €200 million each.

The European Commission announced the allocation of €171,6 million to support Serbia's efforts to implement its EU reform agenda. The funds will be aimed at improving social inclusion, (in particular of the Roma population), employment and human resources development, human rights, protection of minorities, anti-discrimination policies and education.