European Union News

The European Commission has communicated to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, on February 13th, 2009, its Proposal for the Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion of year 2009, COM(2009) 58 final.

With the occasion of the celebration of  this year's annual eTwinning conference, which was held in Prague on February 13th to 15th, the European Commission awarded prizes to ten outstanding eTwinning school projects for the year 2007-2008. Over 500 project entries were assessed, based on their innovative nature, integration in the curriculum, collaboration, creative use of ICT and transferability. The top ten finalists came from 40 schools from 21 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom).

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the content of a possible European Foundation Statute, the issues and difficulties foundations face in their  cross-border operations, and on how a Statute might affect donors' and founders' attitudes. Interested parties may submit their responses until May 15th 2009, which will be taken into account in assessing the need for and the impact of a potential Statute.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published on February 14th, 2009, informations from the Commission on its decision to open proceedings in the case of concentration communicated by Lufthansa and SN Holding (Brussels Airlines). Interested third parties must submit their observations not later that fifteen days after publication.

The European Commission has adopted a new funding decision for 27 million Euro to strengthen global humanitarian preparedness and the response capacity of international organisations. Daily experience confirms the view of the Commission's humanitarian partner organisations who call for significant gaps to be filled, notably in respect of logistics, pre-positioning and disaster-preparedness in sectors such as health, water/sanitation, shelter, food assistance and protection.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU on February 13th 2009, Regulation (EC) Nº 127/2009 laying down the procedure and conditions for the sale of cereals held by paying agencies or intervention agencies. This Regulation recognises that cereals held by the paying agencies or intervention agencies should be sold without any discrimination between Community purchasers, and that in principle invitations to tender permit that objective to be achieved although in certain cases it must be possible to use other methods of sale.

On February 12th 2009, a second generation of the Europe-wide network of Europe Direct information centres was launched for the 2009 - 2012 period. The Europe Direct information network is one of the main tools of the European Commission to offer information to citizens at local level and to give feedback to the European Institutions. The new network will extend possibilities for citizens to get practical information and advice on exercising rights in the European Union.

This Recommendation describes the reference characteristics of an operator’s Nuclear Material Accountancy and Control system complying with the legal obligations of Regulation (Euratom) Nº 302/2005. Some of the characteristics described in this Recommendation are therefore only relevant to facilities with corresponding activities and not to those facilities which involve no measurement.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, on February 12th 2009, an addendum to the Call for proposals for the Lifelong Learning Programme 2009 EAC/31/08 published in the OJEU C 255 on October 10th 2008, which opens for the participation of the Republic of Croatia and of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the Lifelong Learning Programme.

Based on the report by Raporteur Saïd El Khadraoui, the Transport Committee gave a first reading, with amendments, to a Commission proposal to revised the 1999 "Eurovignette" directive. According to the legislation approved by the EP Transport Committee on February 11th 2009, charges on heavy-goods vehicles should be based in part on the air and noise pollution they produce and the congestion they cause.

To ensure that 112 is known all over Europe, the European Commission, together with the European Parliament and Council, have declared February 11th the “European 112 Day”. This declaration follows the results brought up by an EU-wide survey which shows some differences between Member States in the 112 service implementation. In this sense, Commission and Member States will step up their efforts to publicise 112, especially before the summer holiday period.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU has published on February 11th 2009 three recommendations from the European Council of February 10th 2009 concerning the discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the operations of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth European Development Fund (EDF) for the financial year 2007.