European Union News

The European Commission published a report that shows how a majority of countries or regions have lowered the starting age for compulsory language learning in the past 15 years and some even offer it in pre-school. In addition to this, the report confirms that English is the most taught foreign language in nearly all European countries, with French, Spanish, German and Russian following far behind.

The European Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding which creates a dedicated framework to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Commission and two of China's Anti Monopoly Enforcement Authorities, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Civil Liberties Committee in the European Parliament called on the EU delegations to have a key role in strengthening protection for EU nationals in non-EU countries in its adopted position on proposed new rules aimed at strengthening consular protection abroad, which is one of the key rights conferred by EU citizenship. MEPs also called on EU member states to give any EU citizen seeking help abroad the same consular protection that they give their own nationals.

The European Commission recognises in a Communication that Civil Society organisations can be efficient independent development actors. The Commission therefore announced that it will engage further and will provide more support to civil society organisations (CSOs) in its partner countries. It also proposes to launch "EU Roadmaps" for stronger engagement with Civil Society Organisations.

Comments from interested parties on commitments offered by four international publishers - Simon & Schuster (CBS Corp., USA), Harper Collins (News Corp., USA), Hachette Livre (Lagardère Publishing, France), Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck (owner of inter alia Macmillan, Germany) – and Apple, are requested by the Commission on the sale of e-books.

The Industry Committee in the European Parliament amended the draft legislation on Galileo, the European GPS system, and the EGNOS programmes for improving GPS signal quality, for more of the new services to be offered free of charge. Moreover, MEPs approved new legislation to ensure that Europe's two satellite navigation systems can be funded and operated from 2014 to 2020.

The EU Aid Volunteers initiative presented by the European Commission would created create opportunities for some 10,000 people from 2014-2020 to volunteer worldwide in humanitarian operations. The European Commission presented this plan which includes developing European standards for managing volunteers in humanitarian projects, and a training programme to prepare volunteers for deployment.

MEPs decided to amend the draft legislation designed to accelerate work on developing and co-ordinating energy infrastructure projects. The ITRE Committee in the European Parliament amended governance rules for the regional expert groups to increase their transparency, and defined more clearly which commercially non-viable projects should be entitled to EU funding from the Connecting Europe Facility.

The second annual meeting of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), which brought together mayors and regional politicians from the EU and Eastern neighbouring countries, ended with an agreement on a way forward that will include public administration reform, fiscal decentralisation and regional cooperation as key priorities for action.

The European Commission announced the establishment of a new High level group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, that will be chaired by Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, and will focus this year on how best to achieve excellence in teaching and then, next year, it will discuss how to adapt learning in the digital age.

A new Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Robotics has been agreed to be launched by the European Commission, industry and academia, to help Europe-based companies take a larger share of the €15.5 billion annual global robotics market. The European Commission stressed that robotics is a key driver for Europe's growth and competitiveness.

The European Commission launched an initiative to speed up the deployment of new transport means and solutions to achieve a competitive and affordable European transport system. In particular, it will focus on the definition of a set of roadmaps on the deployment of technologies and innovation in 10 critical areas of transport.