European Union News

In spite of EU efforts to help the developing world in 2005 more than one billion people in the world are living in poverty. Therefore, the "I fight against poverty" campaign wants to raise awareness among youngsters of the importance of volunteerism and the EU policies for development, and it contains, among other initiatives, a musical contest.

Europe will come to 500 million, thanks in part to migration and an increase in the number of births while the rate of deaths has remained stable. All EU countries except Germany, have seen their birth rate increase, particularly Lithuania, Poland and Ireland.

The European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005: 56% of Europeans now regularly use the internet, 80% of them via a high-speed connection (compared to only one third in 2004), making Europe the world leader in broadband internet.

The journal Science published a study by researchers from United Kingdom and Spain and financed from EU funds concludes that ecological restoration in areas of high environmental degradation can help stop the loss of global biodiversity. Also showed that the conservation work that are most effective when the restoration is intended to ensure the quality of "ecosystem services" such as drinking water, food production and carbon storage.

The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) handles over 62.000 contacts with EU consumers who turn to them for advice or for help with problems affecting cross-border shopping, both in person and online. The European Commission supports the network and has published the ECC-Net Annual Report for 2008, which saw a 22% increase in the number of Consumers turning to them directly for help. In 2008 most complaints tackled by ECCs concerned transport (33%, of which 80% related to air transport), recreational services (25%) and hotels and restaurants (13%).

The European Commission has published several calls for proposals in various thematic areas of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), under three of the specific programmes that develop it: Cooperation, Capacities and Ideas. 

Following the measures adopted in the field of maritime safety, the European Commission has set up the High Level Steering Group on SafeSeaNet, whose creation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU on August 1st, 2009. Chaired by the European Commission and integrated by representatives from all Member States, the Group will support the development of SafeSeaNet system.

In the framework of the ESPON 2013 programme, calls for proposals and expression of interest will be launched on 16 September 2009. ESPON is an initiative that aims to study the conditions for the development of several areas in the EU. The calls will reflect priorities 1 to 4 of the programme.
 

While the U.S. lost 5 bags per thousand passengers in Europe this number shoots up to fourteen per thousand passengers. Therefore, the European Union is studying the need for rules at European level to solve this problem that involves substantial cost and disruption to both businesses and travelers.

The final stage of the European Union wine reform, agreed by agriculture ministers in December 2007 , enters into force on 1 st August. The wide-ranging reform, the first stage of which applied from 1 st August last year, should bring balance to the wine market, phase out wasteful and expensive market intervention measures and allow the budget to be used for more positive, proactive measures which will boost the competitiveness of European wines.
 

The Official Journal of the EU on July 31, 2009 includes the publication of Regulation (EC) No 663/2009 of the European Parliament and Council on establishing a programme to support economic recovery through the granting of Community financial assistance projects in the field of energy.

According to new figures, the EU’s Erasmus programme for mobility and co-operation in higher education, continued its successful course in the academic year 2007/2008 by enabling more than 162.000 European students and 27.000 academics to go abroad to study or teach. Student exchanges with Erasmus grew by 5.2 % compared to 2006/07, so it can be assumed that by mid 2009 Erasmus has exceeded the mark of 2 million students.