European Union News

Council Decision 2008/633/JHA, of June 23rd, concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS) by designated authorities of Member States and by Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences, was published in the OJEU on August 13th. This Decision complements Regulation (EC) Nº 767/2008 concerning the VIS and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas, the so-called “VIS Regulation”, which was published on the same date

The need for higher internet speeds appears to be a never ending struggle. The more that goods and services are available online, the more people use the internet, resulting in increased traffic. This is why EU funded the European project GigaWaM with EUR 3 million to modernise people's broadband access and get rid of traffic jams once and for all.

The European Commission has granted clearance under the EU Merger Regulation to the acquisition of joint control of two newly created companies constituting a joint venture (JVs) by Total S.A. of France and Sonatrach, Algeria. The operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on August 12th, the Commission's non opposition to a prior notified concentration between the manufactures of consumer electronics Wistron/Lite and On LCD Business.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, published on August 12th the Commission Recommendation of May 26th on safe and efficient in-vehicle information and communication systems, updating the European Statement of Principles on human-machine interface (HMI). This Recommendation summarises the essential safe design and use aspects to be considered for HMI for in-vehicle information and communication systems, and replaces the previous version of 1999 Recommendation.

The European Commission has released €1 million in fast-track aid to help cover the urgent humanitarian needs of thousands of civilians affected by the fighting in the region of South Ossetia and beyond in Georgia. Experts from the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) are in the region and are closely following the humanitarian situation.

The European Research Council (ERC) has released details of the first round of recipients of its Advanced Grants in the physical sciences and engineering fields. Some 105 of the almost 1,000 applicants from these disciplines have been allocated funding.

The European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union of August 11th a prior notification of a concentration between the companies Galp Energia España and Agip España. With this operation, that was already initiated and withdrawn early this year, Galp Energia seeks to double its retail presence in Spain.

Favourable weather conditions and an increase in the planted area farmed should lead to a total cereals harvest close to 301 million tonnes year 2008 in the European Union, 43 million tonnes more than in 2007. This represents an increase of 16% on the 2007 harvest and 9% on the past five years' average production.

The European Commission has allocated a further €21 million in humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa: Assistance is being provided to vulnerable populations in Somalia (€13m), Eritrea (€4m) and Ethiopia (€4m). So far in 2008, the Commission has provided nearly €120 million in humanitarian aid, including food aid, to needy people in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda).

The European Commission has decides that the majority of rules relating to aviation security will be made available to the public. The publication of the EU list of prohibited articles will make it easier for passengers to know what they can, and cannot, take on board an aircraft, while it increases transparency of EU rules in this domain.

The Commission published a Communication with the summary of the Progress Report to the Council on the implementation of Council Recommendation 2005/835/EC of November 14th 2005 on priority actions to increase cooperation in the field of archives in Europe presented by the European Archives Group (EAG).