European Union News - European Union

The European Commission has adopted new competition rules for agreements between vehicle manufacturers and their authorised dealers, repairers and spare parts distributors. The new rules will increase competition in the market for repair and maintenance by improving access to technical information needed for the repairs and by making it easier to use alternative spare parts.

The Task Force on economic governance, chaired by the President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy, met for the first time on 21 May. Agreement was reached on four main objectives and on the direction in which the group would move forward for each of them.

The proposal represents the commission’s first concrete effort to forge a common approach to bank taxes, which have become more popular with EU governments since the financial crisis. The lack of EU-wide rules could also lead to competitive imbalances between national banking markets. It also threatens to hamper cross-border cooperation in the event of another crisis.

The belgian capital will host on 27th and 28th May 2010 the first edition of the Forum for Outermost Europe, in the framework of new Lisbon Treaty. The Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, will inaugurate the event.

After being chosen by their national juries, now Riga and Umeå have been ratified by the Council of the European Union as its European Capitals for 2014 with the publication of the official decision in the OJEU.

Ministers from 37 countries - 27 from the European Union and the ten that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - will meet in Madrid on Wednesday to commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of a formal framework for relations between the two groups.

The European Commission has called a group of legal experts to study how to improve contract Law in the European Union. The group is formed of 18 experts in European contract law, lawyers and consumer representatives and It will aim to promote cross border trade and strengthen the rights of consumers.

Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, the EU has examined how to avoid a similar event in future. On 18 May, the Ecofin Council reached an agreement on a mandate for the Presidency to negotiate with the European Parliament on a directive establishing an EU framework for managers of alternative investment funds, such as hedge or private equity funds.

Tomorrow is World Biodiversity Day and despite efforts around the globe, studies show that biodiversity – the rich variety of life on this planet – is diminishing at a startling rate. An innovative EU campaign to highlight this message is engaging thousands of people across the European Union and beyond. The campaign website has already received more than half a million visits, while over 56,000 people have shown their support for the campaign on Facebook.

The European Parliament adopted a report calling for the implementation of projects of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM), after two years of stagnation.

People needing organ transplants should face shorter waiting times after Parliament approved on Wednesday a draft directive on quality and safety standards for human organs used for transplants. The directive covers all stages of the chain from donation to transplantation and provides for cooperation between Member States.

The 3rd European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit got underway this Sunday in Madrid under the Spanish Presidency of the EU and in the context of the 6th EU-LAC Summit of Heads of State and Government, which will be held on Tuesday.