European Union News

The European ministers responsible for transport, meeting in Luxembourg on October 9th, 2008, under the presidency of Dominique Bussereau, the French Minister of State for Transport, decided jointly to take a decisive step towards the safe and sustainable development of transport. A political agreement was reached fro two main legislative propositions the III Erika package on maritime transport security.

A holistic approach to eradicating poverty, which seeks to ensure adequate incomes, quality jobs and better access to social services, is advocated by the EP in an own-initiative report. MEPs call on the Council to agree an EU target for minimum wages to provide for remuneration of at least 60% of the relevant average wage and, further, to agree a timetable for achieving that target in all Member States. MEPs call on the Council to agree an EU-wide commitment to end street homelessness by 2015.

The European Commission on October 9th, 2008, a Call for Proposals to support the re-integration of EU researchers within the Marie Curie Actions. This Call is launched under the 2009 Work Programme ‘People’ of the 7th EC Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities. This Call is funded with 31 M€.

Proposal for a Council Decision about the financial contributions to be paid by the Member States contributing to the European Development Fund (third instalment for 2008) (COM(2008) 624 final).

The European Commission has presented a Communication to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee of the Regions, published in the OJEU on October 9th, 2008, encouraging the participation of Local Authorities on a European and national level, to engage in development policy and implementation. The Communication highlights the significance of this emerging dimension of development, build on the recent evolution in aid architecture, and put forward the need to develop a strategic approach at the EU level.

On September 30th 2008, the Commissioner for Health, Ms Androulla Vassiliou launched the 'Europe for Patients' campaign in Brussels. The campaign highlights the different health policy initiatives the Commission intends to adopt in the coming months. All these initiatives are bound by a common goal: better healthcare for all in Europe.

The Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry — Aerospace, GMES, Security and Defence has published the resolution of a tender to develop a study on the competitiveness of the European small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) in the defence sector with a budget of 170,590 euros.

It has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (2008/C 257/12) the Committee of the Regions (CdR) oppingon related to Clusters and cluster policy.

The European Commission launched on October 8th, 2008, a proposal for EU-wide rights to make it easier for consumers to shop on the Internet and in the main street. The new proposal will guarantee consumers, wherever they shop in the EU, clear information on price and additional charges and fees before they sign a contract. It will strengthen consumer protection against late delivery and non delivery, as well as setting out tough EU-wide consumer rights on issues from cooling off periods, returns, refunds, repairs and guarantees and unfair contract term.

The European Parliament's Environment (ENVI) Committee voted on the draft reports on the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system, on shared effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and on geological storage of carbon dioxide, at its meeting on October 6th and 7th 2008. Those are the main elements of the climate-energy package proposed by the European Commission in January this year.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 8tyh, 2008, a Call for Proposals for year 2009 within the Programme in the field of Lifelong Learning 2007-2013. This Call, which represents a financial support of 961 M€, embodies the sub programmes Erasmus, Comenius, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig, Jean Monnet Programme and Transversal Programme.

The ECOFIN Council adopted on October 7th, their conclusions on the immediate responses to take to the financial crisis, along with four statements on the following subjects: financial stability and financial supervision, a coordinated EU response to the economic slowdown, executive pay, and the fight against tax fraud.