European Union News

The European Commission has put forward a revision of EU rules on deposit guarantee schemes that puts into action the commitments made by EU Finance Ministers on October 7th. The new rules are designed to improve depositor protection and to maintain the confidence of depositors in the financial safety net. In the first stage of the application of these new rules bank deposits protection will be increased to 50,000 €.

The European Commission adopted on October 15th, 2008, a Green Paper to open the debate on how to help European farmers make the most of the quality of the food and drinks they produce. This consultation responds to current trends in food production, globalisation spreads, increasing pressure from overseas low cost products as well as the evolution of consumer demands. The consultation will be opened until December 31st.

R&D investment by EU companies has increased by 8.8% compared to the increased R&D investment by US companies of 8.6%, according to the 2008 edition of the European Commission's annual Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. Trends show increased sales and profitability for EU companies and for the first time since records began in 2004, R&D investment growth in the EU companies is greater than that of their US counterparts.

The Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 15th, 2008, a Call for Proposals referred to the Implementation Plan of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU). This call be opened for submitting proposals until January 15, 2009.

The eight European coordinators have each presented to Vice-President Tajani with their third annual report giving a detailed “state of play” of the priority projects for which they are responsible. These reports provide EU institutions with a detailed  analysis of nine major European projects, showing the important progress which has been made over the past year. For the first time, the two new coordinators for inland waterways and motorways of the sea, have submitted their reports. Alongside, the Commission has launched a broad debate over the future of TEN-T Policy, which will take place in the TEN-T Days 2008, held in Brussels October 14th and 15th.

According to  a provisional calculation provided by the European Commission, based on Member States' annual declarations, certain Member States face levies totalling just over 340 M€ for exceeding their milk quotas during the 2007/2008 marketing year.

The Council has adopted on October 10th, 2008, a Proposal of Decision (COM (2008) 631 final) about the financial contributions to be made by Member States to the European Development Fund, for the period of 2009 and 2010. The amount of the first instalment of MS contributions for 2009 will be of 1,820 M€.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) on October 14th, a Call for Proposals concerning the 2009 work programme “People” of the 7th EC Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007-2013) for the coordination and support Researchers' Night actions.

The European Commission has published some guidelines for Member States on how they can best support financial institutions in the current financial crisis whilst respecting EU state aid rules and so avoiding excessive distortions of competition. Those guidelines, based in the EC Treaty rules,  will help MS to put in place coordinated concrete measures to restore confidence in financial markets in accordance with the October 12th Eurogroup declaration.

The Eurogroup Heads of State and Government held a financial crisis summit in Paris on October 12th, in order to define a joint action plan for the eurozone and the European Central Bank. In this meeting the Eurogroup reinforced the idea of a common framework for MS actions against the financial turmoil and support to their financial system.

The European Commission marks the first anniversary of the Integrated Maritime Policy by reviewing the concrete progress achieved to date, where major new initiatives in areas as varied as border surveillance, sustainable tourism, maritime transport strategy, climate change, marine and maritime research strategy, or maritime governance have been achieved. After this period, the Commission plans to launch a number of new policy initiatives in the coming months which will also make an immediate, tangible difference to the way our oceans are managed.

The European Research Council (ERC) presented a selection of its first starting grant winners at a meeting of its Council, held in Paris on October 7th. This presentaion reflected on its successes and challenges over the past three years. The ERC's achievements, especially in fostering pan-European competitiveness, have been significant.