European Union News

The European Commission has decided to pursue infringement procedures against 11 Member States for failure to implement the Cross-Border Mergers Directive in national law. The Commission will send formal requests to Belgium, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia. These formal requests take the form of "reasoned opinions", the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. The Directive should have been implemented before the end of 2007.

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the Norwegian company Trolltech by the Finnish company Nokia. Nokia is mainly active in the development and supply of mobile handsets and Trolltech is a supplier of software development tools, that is software used to develop software. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or a substantial part of it.

The Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Estonia and Finland to fully implement EU rules prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation on the grounds of sex (2002/73/EC). The countries have two months to respond. If they fail to reply or if the response is unsatisfactory, the Commission can decide to take them to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

On the 5th June 2008 in Brussels, European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva presented a report by independent experts entitled "Evaluating Business Safety Measures in the Toy Supply Chain." The Report was carried out at the initiative of the European Commission, as a follow up to the Commission's product safety Stocktaking review in Autumn 2007. The stocktaking was undertaken after a series of high profile recalls to review the strengths and weaknesses of the existing mechanisms to ensure product safety in Europe.

More than 2,000 students and 450 teaching staff from outside Europe have been selected to receive an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for the academic year 2008/09. These scholarships will allow them to study in Europe for one or two years and obtain a Master's degree from one of the 103 top-quality Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses offered by consortia of European higher education institutions.

On the 5th of June 2008, the European Commission lodged proceedings against the United Kingdom for failure to comply with European employment legislation relating to road transport activities. The commission is also taking measures to act against the United Kingdom concerning the failure to adopt as agreed national legislation on the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States.

On 29th May 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration between Eramet, the Frecnh mining group and the Norwegian company Tinfos by which the undertaking Eramet SA (‘Eramet’, France) acquires control of part of Tinfos A/S (all the assets of Tifnos excluding a 60 % in Tinfos' hydropower business) (‘Tinfos’, Norway) by way of
purchase of shares.

Four Companies have won the 2008 European Business Awards for the Environment. The winners were announced this evening by European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas at an awards ceremony during the annual Green Week conference in Brussels. The awards recognise "the Best of the Best" businesses that have won awards at national level.

On the 5th June 2008 the European Commission published a recommendation dating back from the 10th April 2008 on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations.

The last Environment Council under the Slovenian presidency will take place in Luxembourg on 5th June 2008 on World Environment Day. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas will represent the European Commission. The Council will hold policy debates on the Climate and Energy package presented by the Commission in January and the proposed regulation to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars. There will be an exchange of views on genetically modified organisms and a decision is expected for be taken on a common position on whaling.

The public awareness raising campaign on climate change launched by the European Commission in May 2006 moves into a final stage tomorrow that will focus on five Member States – Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. Launched on World Environment Day, this third phase of the “You control climate change” campaign aims to initiate pro-active dialogue on climate change in these five countries, where national campaigns have not yet been implemented. This stage of the campaign is centred around television advertising and a competition for young people that seeks to create a virtual community of ‘Changers’ committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adapting their daily habits.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending a total of EUR 200 million to TIM Celular S.A. and its subsidiary TIM Nordeste S.A for the expansion of their mobile digital communication networks in Brazil using 2G and 3G technologies. This represents the first project funded by the EIB to include UMTS broadband technology outside Europe.