European Union News

The European Commission announced on August 24th 2009 the names of the 52 finalists that are going to compete for the European eGovernment Awards 2009, as well as those projects which have been awarded with a Good Practice label in the framework of these Award. The Awards ceremony will take place on November 19th 2009 in Malmö, Sweden, within the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference.

On October 9th, a conference will be held in Brussels where experts will discuss about "Improving the deployment of innovative broadband networks in European regions”. This event, addressed to all stakeholders, will bring together members from industry and academia, as well as European institutions, in order to provide a strategic overview of the existing opportunities for fast deployment of advanced access infrastructures, particularly broadband and next generation ICT networks.

Due to the extreme weather conditions and severe forest fires in Greece, the European Commission activated on August 22nd, the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection and requested assistance with aerial means. The most dangerous fires, which are threatening the capital Athens, are in North-East Attica.

Given the lack of progress in the deployment of the new in-car communication technology eCall, the Commission noted in a policy document published on August 21st 2009 that regulatory measures to make this life-saving technology available all over Europe as soon as possible could be introduced. In this document, the Commission made a last call to all EU countries to speed up voluntary implementation of the new technology.

The European Commission's 2008 Report on Competition Policy gives an overview of the main developments in EU competition policy and major enforcement actions. In the present economic and financial crisis situation, the report demonstrates how the tools of competition policy were used to face the financial and economic crisis and highlights the benefits that competition policy delivers to consumers.

According to the announcement of prior notification of a concentration published in the Official Journal of European Union on August 21st 2009, the Spanish Dragados, SA, filial of the group ACS, has informed the European Commission about the operation to acquire control over the Polish construction firm Pol-Aqua Group. Interested parties may submit their observations to the Commission in the ten days following the publication of this notice.

Getting the most from all the advantages provided by today's high-tech information society is an important challenge from the point of view of the European Commission. The way we use media is changing, the volume of information is enormous and increasingly demanding. For that reason, the Commission has adopted a set of guidelines calling for an intensification of the actions on media literacy.

The EU's Employment Committee (EMCO) endorsed on June 24th 2009 a report showing how flexicurity policies can be monitored. The report acknowledges that assessment of flexicurity is complex and a holistic approach is essential showing the combination and the interaction between the four dimensions: contractual arrangements, life long learning, active labour market policies and modern social security systems.

The special characteristics of the defence equipment market and its demands for security and confidentiality of the proceedings determine the need for specific rules governing the award of works, services and supplies related to that sector. According to these requirements, the OJEU has published on August 20th 2009, Directive 2009/81/EC on the coordination of procedures for the award of certain works contracts, supply contracts and service contracts by contracting authorities or entities in the fields of defence and security, and amending Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC.

During the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, informal ministerial meetings will be held at seven different locations, from Malmö in the south to Umeå in the north. These meetings already started on July 6th with the informal ministerial meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, and will end up with ministerial eGovernment meeting and conference on November 18th to 20th.

As of January 1st 2010, the EU will invest 18 M€ into research that will underpin next generation 4G mobile networks. The European Commission just decided to start the process of funding research on Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced technology, that will offer mobile internet speeds up to a hundred times faster than current 3G networks. LTE is becoming the industry's first choice for next generation mobile networks, also thanks to substantial EU research funding since 2004.

The Commission has published in the OJEU on August 19th 2009, its Communication on the return to viability and the assessment of restructuring measures in the financial sector in the current crisis under the State aid rules. The Commissions explains how it will examine aid for the restructuring of banks in the current crisis, taking into account the need to modulate past practice in the light of the nature and the global scale of the crisis, the systemic role of the banking sector for the whole economy, and the systemic effects which may arise from the need of a number of banks to restructure within the same period.