European Union News - Environmnet

According to the European law enforcement agency, Europol, the volume of illegal waste shipments increased due an exceptional ‘low risk – high profit’ margin for crime organisations. In the EU, the illegal trafficking of waste is particularly rising between countries in North West and North East Europe.

The EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva requested at the African Union meeting more help from the African governments in order to fight against the current situation of hunger in the Horn of Africa. In most areas affected by drought, malnutrition rates exceed 30% which is more than double the internationally recognised emergency threshold.

The European Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) delivered a coordinated EU operation with aerial assets provided by Spain, France and Italy following the request made by Greece and Albania in fighting forest fires.

EU funded research developed a technique to produce real-time, high-resolution images of distant galaxies. The technique, called Electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (e-VLBI), allows multiple radio telescopes throughout the world to work together to simulate one giant telescope. This not only improves the quality of observation results but also helps to maximise the return on investment in radio telescopes.

During the celebration of World Water Week (21 - 29 August), Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, reaffirms the EU's commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goal pledge of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

The European Commission announced a new assistance package for Jordan will provide critical support to education, renewable energy and the implementation of the country's European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan. With this package, the Commission intends to provide new training for teachers and help to build new centres for special needs education.

An international team of astronomers has made the first detection of oxygen molecules in space. Until now no searches had turned up oxygen in its molecular form - two atoms of oxygen bonded together, but the team from Herschel Oxygen Project believes that this study would explain where some of the oxygen might be hiding.