European Union News

The competition European Innovation and Creativity Camp was won by students from six different countries with their concepts FaceSchool and YouSchool. A group of 95 students were given 24 hours to propose solutions to a problem. Now, they have presented their concept in a conference held in Stockholm.

Parliament has set up its Election Observation Group for the 7th legislature. The group, of 13 MEPs, will be co-chaired by Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gabriele Albertini (EPP, IT), and Development Committee Chair Eva Joly (Greens/EFA, FR). Its first assignment will be to observe the January 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine.

The European Commission has adopted a decision that renders legally binding commitments offered by Microsoft to boost competition on the web browser market. The commitments address Commission concerns that Microsoft may have tied its web browser Internet Explorer to the Windows PC operating system in breach of EU rules on abuse of a dominant market position. 

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) will, for the first time, open its doors in Vilnius. The Presidents of Lithuania and Latvia, Dalia Grybauskaitė and Valdis Zatlers, along with Commissioner Vladimír Špidla, the Institute's Chair of the Management Board, Eva Welskop-Deffaa and the Director of the Institute, Virginija Langbakk will unveil the new premises at a ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony will honour the launch of one of the EU's youngest agencies whose aim is the promotion of gender equality issues.

The Regions for Economic Change annual conference, organized by the European Commission, will be held on 20-21 May 2010 in Brussels.

Legal measures to make it easier for people who have lost or risk losing their jobs to get credit to start up their own businesses were backed by the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Crisis response measures and EU financial support have helped to stem the adverse impacts of the slowdown on EU labour markets in 2009, says a European Commission report issued today. But these measures must be coherent with long-term employment reforms to prepare a successful exit from the crisis. The draft 'Joint Employment Report' will be discussed by employment and social affairs ministers in the Council in March 2010 and will contribute to the EU's new 2020 strategy for growth and jobs, due to be adopted by EU leaders in Spring 2010.

European parliament hosts today in its plenary session in Strasbourg a debate about EU budget for 2010. The main challenges are to find an agreement about recovery plan and to help restructure dairy sector.

The Official Journal of the European Union has issued a decision under the Council of the European Union on prevention and settlement of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings

Researchers, stakeholders and policy-makers from all over Europe gathered in Malmö for the Seminar "The ESPON Knowledge Base as Potential for Territorial Analysis and Policymaking at Regional Level". The ESPON Coordination Unit organised in close co-operation with the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union the second internal Seminar under the ESPON 2013 Programme on 2 and 3 December 2009.

The TEN-T EA is organising its second Project Management Workshop in Brussels on 12-13 January 2010. The event, which mirrors the first Project Management Workshop held in December 2008, will feature both a plenary session as well as smaller breakout thematic sessions, aimed at providing participants with more in-depth information on more specific topics.

European leaders have pledged a total of €7.2bn over the next three years to help poorer nations cope with global warming, hoping to boost support for an agreement in Copenhagen. Moreover, they agreed to create several monitoring mechanisms for banks.