European Union News

MEPs endorsed at the Civil Liberties Committee the draft legislation which intends to tackle exploitation, while preventing temporary stays from becoming permanent of seasonal workers. In particular, these workers would enjoy basic working and living conditions, such as a minimum wage and decent accommodation.

According to a special report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the Commission dealt in a satisfactory way with deficiencies identified in the Member States' management and control systems, but was less successful in obtaining assurance that its actions led to improvements in Member States’ management and control systems. In addition, the ECA also published a report which concludes that Structural and Cohesion Fund investments in transport infrastructure in seaports effective in only 11 out of the 27 projects.

A resolution passed unanimously by MEPs from the Environment and Public Health Committee proposes measures such as a breast implant register, more stringent checks and product traceability, and a pre-market authorisation system. The proposed measures are aimed at preventing recurrence of the PIP defective breast implants case.

Europol presented the “EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report: TE-SAT 2012” which highlights the increasing prominence of lone and solo actor plots. Nevertheless, also in 2011, the total number of terrorist attacks and terrorism-related arrests in the EU continued to decrease, according to the report.

The draft budget for 2013 presented by the European Commission freezes expenditure because the increase of commitments is at the level of inflation, cuts its staff by 1%, and it proposes a 6.8% increase in the level of payments aimed at, according to the Commission, contributing directly to growth and jobs in Europe. However, this proposal does not take into account the costs of Croatia joining the EU in July 2013.

The European Commission opens in-depth investigation to examine whether a Spanish plan to compensate digital terrestrial broadcasters for the extra costs of parallel broadcasting, while services are re-allocated to another frequency to free the digital dividend, is in line with EU state aid rules.

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, speaking ahead of the two-yearly meeting of higher education ministers in Bucharest (Romania), in the framework of the Bologna Process, asked to urgently modernise their higher education systems and remove barriers to a fully functioning European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

The European Commission adopted a Regulation for the provision that exempts from EU state aid rules aid of up to €500,000 per company over a three-year period that is granted as compensation for the provision of services of general economic interest (SGEI). The SGEI de minimis Commission Regulation adopted sets out the conditions under which support granted to SGEI providers does not constitute state aid within the meaning of Article 107 of the TFEU.

In the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing, the European Commission published an article with the data gathered by Eurostat on life expectancy (LE) and Healthy Life Years' (HLY), an important European policy indicator. In particular, the figures in the EU in 2010 showed that Sweden had the longest LE at birth, at 79.6 years for men, and the HLY rate was of 71.7 years.

MEPs voted a resolution in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament, which proposes a "European Investment Plan", reallocate EU structural funds to projects to create them for young people, and introduce a "European Youth Guarantee".

The General Affairs Council meeting ended with an agreement on the new rules for EU cohesion policy of the 2014-2020 period. However this first agreement is pending on the European Parliament's position in first reading. Overall, Council's position is aimed at strengthening results orientation and improving the quality of cohesion spending.
 

The Council reinforced once more EU restrictive measures against the Syrian regime, in view of the gravity of the situation in Syria. On the other hand, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on the EU nations to invest more in security in a meeting celebrated by the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament.