European Union News

On 25 September 2007, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1778 (2007) approving the establishment of a UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) and authorizing the EU to conduct an operation in those countries for a period of 12 months from the declaration of Initial Operating Capability.

The European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry have released their Innovation Policy Projects for 2008. The various projects will involve monitoring SMEs throughout Europe on their performance and activity in order to promote e-learning between SMEs, to improve  the use of ICT products in SMEs and provide complete reports of  tangible information for the future.

On the 20th December 2007 in Brussels, the Rural Development Committee (consisting of representatives of the 27 Member States) gave a positive opinion to the Rural Development programmes of Bulgaria, Finland (Åland Islands), France (La Guyane, La Corse) Germany (National Framework), Italy (4 regions) Latvia, Malta, Portugal (Madeira), Spain (4 regions) and England for the financial period 2007-2013. These programmes are defined to guarantee infrastructure, create new income opportunities for rural regions, promote growth and fight unemployment. The Commission still has to formally adopt the programmes in the next weeks. The approval of the programmes for other countries and regions will follow in the next months.

On 31st of January, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the content of a European "Small Business Act". Its objective is to put small and medium sized enterprises at the forefront of decision-making in the EU and to introduce concrete measures to unlock the SMEs' growth potential. It will include new initiatives to reduce regulatory burden on SMEs, facilitate access to Single Market/public procurement, help provide necessary financial/human resources for SME development and help SMEs face the challenge of globalization and climate change. The preparation of a "Small Business Act" for Europe is one of the key measures announced in the Commission's package for the next cycle of the Growth and Jobs Strategy adopted last December. The consultation will be open until the end of March. A Public hearing on the Small Business Act will take place on 6 February in Brussels.

The European Parliament adopted the new Postal Directive, giving its final political approval to EU postal reform. The vote confirms the broad political consensus on the way forward for opening EU postal markets to full competition. The Commission will assist Member States in implementing the new Directive and will take an active role in monitoring closely market developments to make sure that EU citizens and businesses obtain the benefits from high quality postal services foreseen by the Directive.

MEPs adopted a report giving their strong support to an Austrian initiative to improve cooperation between the special police intervention units of EU countries in crisis situations. The report gives its non-binding approval to the Council initiative and proposes few amendments to clarify concepts such as what is a "crisis situation" or how can Member States cooperate. The report was adopted with 558 votes in favour, 56 against and 10 abstentions.

Participation in projects financed by the Leonardo Da Vinci vocational training programme brings substantial social and economic benefits, a recent study funded by the European Commission has shown. It demonstrates that international mobility of this kind is a strong incentive for personal, linguistic, social and professional development.

The European Commission adopted a proposal, on the 30 January 2008, to make food labels clearer and more relevant to the needs of EU consumers. The aim of the draft Regulation is to modernise and improve EU food labelling rules, so that consumers have, in a legible and understandable manner, the essential information they need to make informed purchasing choices.

The Commission sent, on the 31 January 2008, reasoned opinions to 11 Member States to fully implement EU rules prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation on the grounds of religion and belief, age, disability and sexual orientation. The countries concerned – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden – have two months to respond, failing which the Commission can decide to take them to the European Court of Justice. Also, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Germany and two complementary letters of formal notice to Latvia and Lithuania. The Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC) was agreed in 2000 with a deadline for implementation into national law of December 2003.

The commission of the European Communities published on 28th January 2008 the COM(2008) 23 final 2008/0019 (COD) related to the Proposal for a directive…/…/EC of the European parliament and the council on the legal protection of computer programmes. The function of a computer program is to communicate and work together with other components of a computer system and with users and, for this purpose, a logical and, where appropriate, physical interconnection and interaction is required to permit all elements of software and hardware to work with other software and hardware and with users in all the ways in which they are intended to function. The parts of the program which provide for such interconnection and interaction between elements of software and hardware are generally known as “interfaces”. This functional interconnection and interaction is generally known as “interoperability”; such interoperability can be defined as the ability to exchange information and mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.

Representatives from the EU's Culture Ministries met in Cannes on 27 January to discuss the challenges facing the music industry at an informal meeting held to coincide with the start of this year's MIDEM international trade fair for the music and recording industry. At the event, European Commissioner Ján Figel' announced the launch of a study on the role of culture, and the EU's cultural industries, in promoting and stimulating creativity, innovation and growth in the EU.

It has been published in the OJ (18.1.2008) a call for proposal related for the EU-Canada Programme The general objectives of the programme and of this Call are to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the European Union and Canada including broader knowledge of their languages, cultures and institutions and to improve the quality of human resources in the European Union and Canada.