European Union News

As part of  information from European Union institutions and Bodies, the EC has published notification of complete non-opposition to the concentration between Basell and Raffinerie de Berre L'Étang. On 4 February 2008, the Commission decided not to oppose the above notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the common market.

A communication was published on the 22nd of April 2008, from the European Commission (EC), the European Parliment, the Council the European Economic and  SOcail Committee of the regions on on the protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games.

The European Commission have published their official report, on the 24th April 2008, to the European Parliment, the Council and the European Court of Auditors concerning the Financial Management of the 7th-9th European Development Funds (EDFs) in 2007.

The demands for and costs of long-term care provision in the EU will rise significantly by 2050, according to a new report presented by the European Commission. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Europeans (almost nine out of ten) favour home- or community-based care over care in an institutional setting.

The European Commission has published a report on the actions undertaken on prevention of payment fraud between 2004 and 2007 following an Action Plan on this matter.

The European Commission has given notice of the launch of the call for proposals under the work programme for 2008 of the Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (2007 to 2013). The Call has an allotted 39 million euros.

On 7 April 2008, the Commission decided not to oppose the above notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the common market.

The European Commission, on the 29th of April 2008, published notification of complete Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case COMP/M.4949 — Sonepar/Hagemeyer). On 8 February 2008, the Commission decided not to oppose the above notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the common market.

According to the report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliment on the operation of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of 19 July 2002 concerning the application of international accounting standards, 1, 731 companies apply international accounting standards.

On 20 September 2007, the European Commission approved a transnational cooperation programme between Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Slovenia (with participation from Liechtenstein and Switzerland) for the period 2007-13. The Alpine Space Programme falls within the framework laid out for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective and has a total budget of around €130 million. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €98 million, which represents approximately 1.1% of the total EU investment earmarked for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13.

On 4 December 2007, the European Commission approved INTERACT 2007-13, a European Territorial Cooperation Programme that covers the whole of the European Union, plus Norway and Switzerland. The Programme aims to promote good governance of Community-funded Programmes that fall within the framework of the European Territorial Cooperation Objective and has a total budget of around €40 million. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €34 million, which represents approximately % of the total EU investment earmarked for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13.

The European Data protection Supervisor released a press statement on Monday 28th April 2008 concerning issues within is policy paper on his role in EU research and technological development.