European Union News

Europe and Canada are close international partners, with strong economic, cultural and political ties. However, arrangements for air transport do not reflect this reality, with Canada having restrictive or no agreements on aviation with the vast majority of Member States. The new Agreement transforms this important market to the benefit of European and Canadian consumers and airlines. It also brings legal certainty to operations between the EU and Canada by recognising the principles of the EU internal aviation market and of a Community carrier.

Following the adoption of Regulation (EC) Nº 479/2008 of April 2008, which established common organization of the market in wine, the European Union considered it necessary to amend Regulation (EC) Nº 1234/2007, the so-called “Single CMO Regulation”, in order to adapt the conditions of wine market regulations to the common conditions. These amendments have been included in the Regulation Nº 491/2009 of May 25th, published in the OJEU on June 17th, 2009.

The European Commission launched today the BUILD UP web portal on http://www.buildup.eu/ as a tool for sharing information on reducing energy use of buildings. Content will be regularly updated and enhanced by users themselves to cover a wide range of good practice in energy reduction and of information on legislation.

The European Commission will address the issue of gender equality in a time of economic crisis during a conference in Brussels on 15 and 16 June 2009 . The two-day conference will bring together representatives from the European institutions, notably Vice-President Wallström and Commissioner  Špidla; representatives from national governments and equality bodies, European social partners and civil society to identify future priorities in the field of gender equality.

The European Commission has launched a Call for Proposals under ICI Education Cooperation Programme in order to enhance mutual understanding between peoples of the EU and the Partner Countries including broader knowledge of their languages, cultures and institutions.

Following a complaint from SO.GI.N., an Italian company which led a consortium that bid for a 4 M€ EU project concerning the harmonisation of energy policies between the EU and Russia, the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, criticised the European Commission for unfairly excluding this company after recalculating the consortium's bid without consulting the complainant. As a result of its recalculation, Commission wrongly concluded that the bid exceeded the maximum allowable budget of EUR 4 million by 21 €.

 15% of Europeans believe they have been discriminated against – one good reason for the European Commission to launch for the sixth year running its “For Diversity. Against Discrimination.” journalist competition. The award is open to both print and online journalists. It showcases the talents of media professionals who, through their writing, contribute to a better understanding of the benefits of diversity and tackling discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation, race or ethnic origin. This year's award includes a special category for articles focusing on the link between poverty and discrimination.

In a public deliberation, the Council took note of a progress report summarising the work done so far on the energy efficiency package, which contains the following three proposals: an energy labelling directive, a tyres labelling directive and an energy performance of buildings directive.

The European Commission presented on June 12th 2009, a draft legislation to improve the safety of biocides and to simplify authorisation procedures, by significantly increasing the safety of biocide products used and placed on the market in the European Union. It proposes to phase out the most hazardous substances, particularly those that may cause cancer, and to introduce new rules for articles such as furniture and textiles treated with biocides, which are not covered by existing legislation.

EU Ministers meeting at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council session taking place in Brussels on June 11th 2009, held an exchange of views on network and information security policy. The debate focused on the issue of critical information infrastructure protection, on the future of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) as well as on the general direction of European efforts in this field.

The European Council adopted on June 11th 2009 at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting , a revised regulation on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) as one of the measures to tackle economic crisis.

According to Commission's Decision (2009/454/CE) of June 11th 2009, Decision 2008/938/CE where the list of the beneficiary countries which qualify for the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance was established is modified, excluding from such list the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.