European Union News

The first meeting of the ECOFIN Council celebrated under the French Presidency, which was held in Brussels on July 8th, ended with important advences in two key areas such as oil and measures to enhance financial satbility, as well as the adoption of euro by Slovakia.

The European Commission put forward a package of new "Greening Transport" initiatives to steer transport towards sustainability dated on the 8th July 2008. Mobility is key to our quality of life and is vital for the EU’s competitiveness. It is the backbone of the economy making the links between the different stages of production chains and allowing service industries to reach their clients, as well as being a significant employer in its own right. As such it is key to achieving the goals of the EU’s ‘Lisbon’ strategy for growth and employment. This is all the more so given that the sector is growing rapidly: between 1995 and 2005, goods and passenger transport in the EU grew by 31.3% and 17.7% respectively and this growth is predicted to continue.

In a meeting of the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee held July 7th, EU Member States endorsed the Commission's proposal for a regulation reducing standby energy consumption of household and office products. The regulation lays down energy efficiency requirements for all products sold in Europe, thus cutting the EU's standby electricity consumption by almost 75% by 2020.

The European Ombudsman, has expressed his concern about the problems encountered by the European Commission in paying its bills on time. In 2007, delays occurred in more than one out of five cases and the average delay amounted to 48 days in a report submitted on the 7th July.

The report, based on an external evaluation, concludes that the Europass initiative is achieving its objectives as a mobility tool for citizens and is relevant to their needs, helping them to make their competences and qualifications easier to understand and more acceptable in both learning contexts and the labour market.

The French Presidency presented a draft European pact on immigration and asylum to its partners at the informal meeting in Cannes on 7 July 2008. It also made a series of proposals aimed at strengthening operational cooperation between police forces and civil protection capabilities.

The European Commission has made a proposal for a amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards reduced rates of value added tax (COM(2008) 428/3) based on the study on reduced VAT applied to goods and services in the Member States of the European Union presented by Copenhagen Economics based on the Article 93 of the Treaty. Products referred in the proposal to have a reduced VAT are feminine sanitary protection and children's nappies, equipment for the disabled, e-books, housing sector, concerning foodstuffs, the supply of alcoholic beverages are not included.

This new General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) consolidates into one text and harmonises the rules previously existing in five separate Regulations, and enlarges the categories of state aid covered by the exemption. It will take effect 20 days after publication in the Official Journal, allowing Member States to grant better targeted aid immediately.

This symposium, organised by the CNC (Centre National de la Cinématographie), aims to provide food for thought on cinematographic cooperation with other countries and regions around the world. The event is being hold on the 7 and 8th July in the French Cinémathèque.

The Opinion of the Committee of the Regions upon the “Green Paper: Towards a New Culture for Urban Mobility”, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, in July 7th. In this Opinion, the Committee welcomes the EU's commitment to continuing its efforts to raise the competitiveness of the European economy as well as to tackling sustainability and climate change.

President of the Generalitat of Valencia, Francisco CAMPS ORTIZ, has made political recommendations to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council — Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the European Union COM(2007) 414 final thought a report with the opinion of the Committee of the Regions. The report has publised at the Official Journal of the European Union.

Launched in 2005, Europass provides a coordinated portfolio of documents helping people to describe what they know and can do in a way that is clearly and easily understood throughout Europe.