European Union News

The Quarterly Review published by the European Commission shows that the employment and social situation in the EU remains subdued despite small improvements. It confirms that overall employment is stagnant and is slightly decreasing in the euro area. However, there are significant differences between Member States.

The European Commission has temporarily approved a conversion of existing state owned preference shares of €4,465 billion into equity and a liquidity guarantee amounting to €19 billion in favour of the Spanish BFA group and its subsidiary Bankia. With the now approved conversion of preference shares into equity, FROB holds 100% of BFA.

The European Commission announced that 261 projects were submitted for inclusion in the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing by groups of stakeholders spanning the public and private sector. In addition, 54 regions and municipalities offered themselves as 'reference sites', to exchange good practice and to share knowledge and experience on past successes in this domain.

The Committee of the Regions' (CoR) CIVEX commission organised a seminar on "Local democracy and good governance" whose main conclusions were that local and regional authorities have an active role in ensuring transparency in the public sector and tackling corruption, thus achieving good governance and sound administration for their citizens.

New rules aimed at equipping the EU budget with simpler financial rules while securing sound treatment of European taxpayers' money were agreed by the Council and the European Parliament. This financial regulation contains all the principles and rules for the implementation of the EU budget and is applicable to all areas of expenditure and all revenue.

The European Commission considers that the deployment of KETs is highly relevant for both industrial competitiveness and for responding to today’s great societal challenges. Therefore, it published a Communication in which calls for unleashing the huge potential of these technologies for jobs.

According to a report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA), a number of competent authorities in the Member States do not sufficiently fulfill their supervisory role over control bodies. In addition, among other conclusions, the system governing the various import schemes was also found to have weaknesses.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup, has confirmed through a statement that the Spanish authorities have formally requested he financial assistance. In addition, he also welcomed the formal application for financial assistance from the Cypriot authorities. Cyprus will hold the Presidency of the Council of the EU from 1 of July 2012.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a €500 million loan to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) designed to facilitate small and medium-sized businesses’ access to bank finance. The ICO for its part, will match the EIB loan with the same amount, thus, €1 billion in total.

The Trade Committee in the European Parliament voted in favour to extend the 2014 deadline proposed by the Commission and give ACP countries until 2016 to ratify their Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) before withdrawing their free access to the EU market.

According to Cedefop's new report, governments and employers must act to help people develop skills for green jobs. The report also found little evidence that green policies are influencing skills development and hiring policies.

Environment Commissioner, Janez Potočnik, who attended to the Rio +20 Conference on behalf of the EU and its Member States, supported the outcome document. However, he stressed that there are a number of areas where the EU would have hoped for a more ambitious outcome.