European Union News

The European Commission allocated €63 million to bring Kosovo closer to Europe. In particular, the funding will be used for reforms of the justice and public administration systems, to support the readmission and reintegration of refugees and to improve correctional and probation services.

A new assessment from the European Environment Agency (EEA) confirms that waste is increasingly moving across EU borders, for recovery or disposal, and trade in hazardous waste is also expected to increase. The report recommends encouraging new technologies and business models that generate less waste, or waste that is less hazardous.

EU Heads of State and Government received a letter backing the Erasmus Programme and signed by more than 100 European personalities from the worlds of education, art, literature, economics, philosophy and sport. The letter calls for investment in education and training to be at the heart of Europe's response to the crisis, and was signed by personalities such as the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, the president of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell or the Nobel Prize winner Professor Christopher Pissarides.

The International Trade Committee in the European Parliament approved two safeguard measures to preserve the interests of vulnerable EU banana producers in forthcoming EU trade deals with Central America and Peru and Columbia. In particular, the two measures seek to establish a general safety-net for all EU producers to help them adapt to liberalisation of trade.

The European Commission announced a new €42 million programme which will contribute to halving maternal mortality rate to 375 per 100,000 live births from the current level of 770 per 100,000 (one of the highest in the world) in Liberia. This EU funding is part of the EU's €1 billion MDG initiative to foster global progress on the Millennium Development Goals before 2015.

During a meeting held on 7 November with the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Cioloș, the President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Ramon Luis Valcárcel, underlined the potential of the agricultural sector in delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. He is therefore against any cut to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget.

Following signature of a Cooperation Agreement between the European Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB), clarifying risk sharing, the pilot phase of the project bond initiative is ready for roll-out. The Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative aims to improve capital market financing of infrastructure.

The European Commission wants to reinforce the automotive industry's competitiveness and sustainability heading towards 2020, therefore it presented a new CARS 2020 Action Plan. Among other measures, the plan intends to provide a massive innovative push by streamlining research and innovation under the European Green Vehicle Initiative.

A new civil protection programme in the Mediterranean region, building on the achievements of the successful Euro-Mediterranean Regional Programme for the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to natural and man-made disasters (PPRD) was launched by the European Commission. The new programme, that will start in the spring of 2013 and will run until 2016, will have a strong focus on prevention and preparation rather than on response to disasters.

The Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament agreed that the EU aid to redundant workers would continue in 2014-2020, and could also go to additional categories of workers, such as the self-employed (including farmers) and those on temporary contracts. MEPs believe that redundant workers should have equal access to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund independently of their type of employment contract.

The European Commission published its autumn forecast 2012-14 that shows, on annual basis, that GDP is set to contract by 0.3% in the EU and 0.4% in the euro area in 2012. GDP growth for 2013 is projected at 0.4% in the EU and 0.1% in the euro area. With regard to the government deficits, those are expected to fall to 3.6% in the EU and 3.3% in the euro area in 2012.

The European Commission presented a proposal in order to reach a significant reduction in emissions of climate-warming fluorinated gases (F-gases). Emissions of F-gases, which have a warming effect up to 23,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, have risen by 60% since 1990, while all other greenhouse gases have been reduced.