European Union News

On 15 April 2008 the Official Journal of the European Union has published the Commission repection of a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation 139/2004 by which the undertaking and Gonvarri (Spain) and Arcelor Mittal (Luxembourg) acquire joint control of Gonvarri Brasil Produtos Siderúrgicos SA (‘SSC Brazil’, Brazil) by way of purchase of shares.

On 15th  April 2008 the Official Journal of the European Union has published the Commission repection of a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation 139/2004 by which the undertakings Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd acquires within control of Samsung Opto-Electronics GmbH (‘Samsung Opto-Electronics’, Germany), Samsung Opto-Electronics France S.A.S. (‘Samsung Opto-Electronics France’, France) and Samsung Opto-Electronics UK (‘Samsung Opto-Electronics UK’, United Kingdom), which are all indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries of Samsung Techwin Co., Ltd (‘Samsung Techwin’, Korea) by way of purchase of assets.

On 10 April, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an Opinion on the European Commission's proposal amending, among others, the Directive on Privacy and electronic communications, usually referred to as the ePrivacy Directive.

The European Union is concerned with the situation in the Republic of Bolivia due to the situation of flooding and the continued absence of any political dialogue.

The European Commission welcomed the adoption of the directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. The directive mirrors closely the Commission proposal of September 2005 and demonstrates the European Union's strong commitment to improving air quality in the EU by setting binding standards for fine particles PM2.5.

On the 14th April 2008 the European Commission published its official decision concerning a technical specification for interoperability relating to the ‘energy’ sub-system of the trans-European high-speed rail system (notified under document number C(2008) 807). The Decision shall apply from 1st October 2008.

In recent years, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) have developed in many fields. The hallmark of this form of cooperation, which is generally geared to the longer term, is the role of the private partner, who is involved in the various phases of the project (planning, implementation and operation), who is intended to bear risks that are traditionally borne by the public sector and who often contributes to financing the project.

The European Commision has launched a public consultation related to Marco Polo Programme in order to improve certain aspects to make the programme more attractive for participants, leading to more and better projects for more sustainable freight transport in Europe. Feedback must be sent by 30 May at the latest so the EC services will be able to take it into account.

Two years after the establishment of the first Community list of airlines subject to an operating ban in the European Union, the European Commission today adopted the seventh update of the "blacklist". The Commission is imposing a ban on all operations of an additional Ukrainian airline (Ukraine Cargo Airways) as well as on all operations of the Congolese carrier Hewa Bora Airways.

Details of the new Operational Programme 2007-13  Competitiveness and Employment Programme taking palce various regions of the Unikted Kingdom. The Programmes are under the Competitiveness and Employment Objective, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Parliament adopted two reports on cultural industries, the first calls for a new task force on culture and the creative economy, a programme to support the culture industries the second calls more should be done to ensure that EU programmes reflect Europe's common cultural heritage.

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank today are presenting the results of a study on potential investments addressing pollution hotspots in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The study, undertaken as part of the Commission's Horizon 2020 Initiative designed to tackle the major sources of Mediterranean pollution by the year 2020, recognises the need for a programme to help the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean reduce the pollution they release into the sea.