European Union News

The Commission has adopted a Green Paper with a view to taking further action to improve cooperation between Member States on obtaining evidence in criminal matters. The Commission considers replacing the currently fragmented legal regime on obtaining evidence in criminal matters by a single instrument based on the principle of mutual recognition covering all types of evidence and introducing common standards with a view to secure its admissibility before the Courts.

Photographers from Hungary, France and United Kingdom have won the EU photo competition organised in the framework of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation with the theme "Imagine a new world". The winning photographers received their prizes in Brussels and their works put on display.

The Justice, Freedom and Security Directorate General from the European Commission has published on the 11th november a call for tender to study on the development of an EU framework for minimum quality standards and benchmarks in drug demand reduction.

The European Commission has published on November 11, 2009 in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, a new call for proposals – i2i-Audiovisual - to support independent European Production companies in the access to funding from banks and financial institutions, under the MEDIA 2007 Programme.

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency organises the 'SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] go Health' initiative. It will hold its fifth information and training workshop in Stockholm, Sweden on 25 November 2009.

Ministers from Poland and Spain, along with representatives of the EBRD and EIB were present for the signature of the agreement facilitated by the EBRD-EIB’s Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund. The transaction, which represents 25 M€ emissions trading, will allow significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions through Green Investment Scheme (GIS).

The European Commission and the European Environment Agency have launched a comprehensive new European pollutant release and transfer register – E-PRTR. The register contains information about the emissions of pollutants to air, water and land by industrial facilities throughout Europe. It includes annual data for 91 substances and covers more than 24 000 facilities in 65 economic activities. It also provides additional information, such as the amount and types of waste transferred from facilities to waste handlers both inside and outside each country.

The Presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, Heads of State and Government as well as hundreds of thousands of citizens join together to celebrate the 20 th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a unique event in contemporary history and a landmark for European integration.

Around one in six people in Europe claim to have personally experienced discrimination in the past year, according to a new opinion survey released by the European Commission today. Meanwhile, 64% of Europeans are concerned that the recession will contribute to more age discrimination in the job market. The latest Eurobarometer results come ahead of this year's European Equality Summit, to be held in Stockholm on 16 and-17 November.

The EU-US Energy Council convened for the first time in Washington DC on 4 November, providing a new framework for bilateral talks on energy issues. The EU Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, led a delegation to the US capital to discuss the framework that focuses on intensified cooperation for energy supply security, low carbon energy sources and energy technologies.

In connection with the EU–India Summit, a Business Summit between the EU and India was held in New Delhi on Friday 6 November. European participants included Sweden’s Minister for Trade Ewa Björling, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and business leaders.

Researchers partially funded by the European Union will be using state-of-the-art technology to look into building underwater observatories that will monitor underwater seismic activity in the eastern Mediterranean. As populations grow in the region, scientists have been developing ways of looking for signs of earthquakes before they happen.