European Union News - European Union

The Official Journal of the EU on May 4th contains the final publication of the Programme of Stockholm, the text that defines the new EU Common Strategy on freedom, security and justice.

Boosting economic recovery, investing in Europe's youth and in tomorrow's infrastructures are the priorities of the 2011 draft budget adopted by the Commission on 27 April 2010. Out of a total of €142.6 billion (bn), some €64.4bn are geared towards economic recovery actions (+3.4% on 2010). Furthermore, the funds backing the flagship initiatives of the EU 2020 strategy (for growth) represent some 57.9bn (some 40% of the Budget).

A quarter of fish labelled as cod or haddock in shops and supermarkets in Dublin, Ireland, were found to be entirely different species of fish, new research has revealed. The findings are in line with similar tests conducted in the US, and raise concerns that imprecise tracking and labelling systems may be rife on a global scale.

The General Affairs Council gathered on Monday in Luxembourg under the chair of Spanish Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, reached a political agreement based on the proposal made by the High Representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, on the structure of the diplomatic service that will represent European interests world-wide.

Political representatives, academics and members of the business community will debate on innovation, with emphasis on the European Innovation Plan. The conference, jointly organised between the Spanish ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Commision, will be an opportunity to exchange views on the way forward in the field of innovation.

A new EU-funded project is building multilingual internet programmes that will facilitate the presentation and retrieval of online information across a range of languages. The programmes will meet government, industry and business needs to make full use of the Internet's information dissemination potential.

The European Commission has announced a review of public procurement laws. The Commission has said change is necessary to cope with new e-procurement practices and to respond to more demand for public-private partnerships.

Spain calls an extraordinary meeting of transport ministers to give impetus to a 'single European sky' after the icelandic volcano air-traffic crisis.

A European agreement to combat international drug trafficking, the launch of an “Erasmus” programme to improve cooperation and coordination on police matters and measures to improve the control and safety of explosives are just some of the agreements expected to be reached by justice and interior ministers attending Friday's meeting.

Accesion negotiations among EU and Croatia have moved one great step forward thanks to a a provisional agreemet on free movement of goods