European Union News

A test platform for a remote handling system essential to the future functioning of the ITER fusion reactor has been officially inaugurated in Tampere, Finland. The full-size test facility DTP2 (Divertor Test Platform for ITER) is said to be a significant step forward both for the international ITER project and for nuclear fusion research in general.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, has published on January 31st, 2009 the Conclusions reached by the Council on the definition of a “2020 vision for the European research area”. Following these conclusions the Council adopts such definition aiming at boosting the complete achievement of the European Research Area (ERA).

The European Commission has launched the EU Calendar, a new Internet tool that allows people anywhere in the world to find out what will be on the agenda of the European institutions in the near future.

The Polish authorities notified in December 2007, a regional investment aid in favour of Dell Poland for a large investment project aiming at setting up a new plant for the production of desktops, notebooks and servers in an assisted Article 87.3 a) region in Poland and for the creation of 3.000 jobs. The project's eligible costs amount to 189,58 M€ and the proposed aid amount is 52,73 M€, which corresponds to an aid intensity of 27,81 % GGE.

In January, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the EU and the euro area declined again, but less sharply than in the last three months of 2008. Besides, the data released by Eurostat show an increase of unemployment up to 7.4% in the EU27 and 8.0% in the EU15 area in December 2008.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published on January, 30th 2009 a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and Australia on trade in wine, which will replace the previous 1994 Agreement, aiming to facilitate and promote wine trade between the Community and Australia.

The Council of the European Union has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU on January 30th 2009, a report with its conclusions concerning joint programming of research in Europe in response to major societal challenges. These conclusions recognize the need for a common response to certain issues within an ever more global framework.

The EC strategic review on Better Regulation in the European Union shows that better regulation is a core component of Europe's response to the economic and financial crisis. The review shows that citizens and companies, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), already benefit from simplified measures and administrative costs savings. Thanks to radical simplification some 1,300 acts, representing around 10 % of the acquis or 7800 pages of the Official Journal, have been proposed for removal so far.

The European Commission has published on January, 29th the third Call for Proposals (CIP-ICT PSP-2009-3) under the work programme for 2009 of the Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (2007 to 2013). This Call is funded with 99,5 M€.

The Communication from the Commission provides concrete proposals how to reach an agreement at the Copenhagen summit. It addresses three key challenges of the new international agreement – targets and actions, financing low carbon development and building an effective global carbon market.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, announced further 58 M€ in humanitarian aid for vulnerable Palestinian populations as he visited the Middle East region on a two-day humanitarian mission aimed at seeing for himself the destruction in Gaza following the conflict and to witness just how difficult the living conditions are there for the 1.5 million Palestinian population.

In this opinion the ECB notes that the scope of the proposed regulation covers not only cross-border electronic payment transactions and credit transfers but also cross-border direct debits. This is in line with efforts to achieve the Internal Market for payment services and with the launch of the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) in particular, and is highly welcomed by the ECB. However, the proposed regulation also raises some issues which require careful consideration.