European Union News

The European Commission warmly welcomed the formal decision by the members of the Committee on Government Procurement to adopt the accession of The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei) to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, on December, 9th, 2008, FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2009-1 Call for Proposals, related to the specific “Capacities” Work Programme of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013).

On November, 28th, the Council of the European Union adopted Framework Decision 2008/919/JHA, amending Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA. This Framework Decision aims to increase further approximated legislations in Member States in order to strengthen freedom, security and justice in the European Union.

The European Commission's Clearing and Settlement Advisory and Monitoring Expert Group, CESAME, has issued a comprehensive report on its four years of work on removing industry-related barriers to the cross-border clearing and settlement of securities transactions. This report gives a concise overview of all the work done by the industry to dismantle the six industry-related "Giovannini Barriers" to post-trading and of the state of play on the nine such Barriers attributed to the public sector. It also provides an overview of other pertinent topics related to post-trading which were discussed by the Group.

Following the provisions of the Agreement between the European Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confederation concerning the Swiss Confederation’s association with the implementation, application, and development of the Schengen acquis, the Council of the European Union published on December, 5th, 2008, Decision 2008/903/EC, on the full application of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in the Swiss Confederation.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, published on December, 5th, 2008, the Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of November, 19th, on temporary agency work, which ensures the protection of temporary agency workers and recognises temporarywork agencies as employers.

The European Commission presented to the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, on November, 28th, a Communication proposing an “Action Plan on e-signatures and e-identification to facilitate the provision of cross-border public services in the Single Market” COM(2008) 798 final.

The Commission has proposed legislation to ensure that harmful petrol vapour which escapes during the refuelling of cars at service stations is captured and recycled. Petrol pumps in many service stations across the EU will need to be fitted with equipment that can recover 85% or more of this vapour.

The Commission adopted today two legislative proposals establishing sets of rights for passengers using bus and maritime services on both domestic and international routes. Rights include minimum rules on information for all passengers before and during their journey, assistance and compensation in the event of interruptions of journeys, measures in the event of delays and specific assistance for persons with reduced mobility. Like in the air and rail sectors, proposals foresee independent national bodies for settlement of disputes.

Ahead of the European Council of the 11 and 12 December, MEPs debated the three key topics, namely, the climate change and energy package, the response to the economic crisis and progress on the Lisbon Strategy. Most group speakers agreed the need for a deal on the climate change package and supported the Commission's proposals on the economic crisis. Besides, some of the smaller groups asked for the Lisbon Treaty to be forgotten given the No vote in Ireland last June.

The European Commission presented on December, 3rd a discussion paper on the management of bio-waste in the European Union. Bio-waste, which involves biodegradable garden, kitchen and food waste, accounts for around one third of municipal waste and has major potential impacts on the environment. When disposed of in landfill sites, it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide and a major contributor to climate change.

The BEFORE project recently delivered its conclusions after performing a comparative analysis (benchmarking) of efficient support instruments for RTD in geographical areas with demographic significant imbalances, analysing specific tools of support for rural companies and entrepreneurs, and developing a set of indicators of impact of the regional RTD support policies in such regions.