European Union News - European Union

Habitat loss and climate change are having a serious impact on Europe’s butterflies, beetles and dragonflies. The release of the latest European Red List, commissioned by the European Commission, shows that nine percent of butterflies, 11 percent of beetles that depend on decaying wood and 14 percent of dragonflies are threatened with extinction within Europe.

A total of € 346.5 million of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States is claimed back as a result of a conformity clearance procedure decision adopted by the European Commission. The money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

Plans should be developed for a global tax to discourage excessive risk-taking by financial institutions and ensure that the financial industry pays for the damage caused by the financial crisis, says Parliament in a resolution. If a worldwide tax proves unachievable, the EU could consider the option of going it alone, add MEPs.

As a mode of transport, flying is one of the safest. To make it even safer, any accident must be investigated thoroughly and independently. New EU rules for the investigation of civil aviation accidents were approved by transport ministers meeting at the Council on 11 March.

The EU Solidarity Fund must be mobilised "in the most urgent and flexible way and to the greatest possible extent" to help the areas hit by severe storms in February, as soon as the national governments have submitted their aid requests, said MEPs in Strasbourg on Thursday morning.

Brussels has hosted the first meeting of the Standing Committee on Internal Security of the European Union, an organism which aims to coordinate the actions of member States in the field of internal security

Following its approval in December 2010, the Official Journal of the European Union of March 12 has released the final version of the budget for 2010.

On 16 th March, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) will launch a modernised and streamlined selection procedure for EU officials, with its first competition for Administrators under the new arrangements. The new system will be better by establishing annual competitions for the most common job profiles, thus allowing candidates to plan their applications more effectively and helping strategic human resource planning by the EU institutions. It will be faster and more efficient, involving fewer steps than the current set-up

The Committee of the Regions welcomes the objectives and the form of governance outlined in the Europe 2020 Strategy but stresses that its effectiveness will be limited if local and regional authorities only play an implementing role downstream of the decision-making process.

A non-EU national staying in one of the Member States on a long-stay visa will be allowed to travel to most other Member States for three months in any six-month period under the same conditions as the holder of a residence permit, under a new regulation approved on Tuesday by Parliament.

Budapest and Vienna will host on 11 and 12 March a ministerial conference and a forum on the Bologna Declaration and the new structures of European higher education. This is the second conference on this issue organized by the European Unnion.

The nominees for the European Inventor Award 2010 include inventors of pioneering innovations in a wide range of fields, from the conservation of drinking water to the synthesis of football-shaped carbon molecules or "fullerenes", and from cancer treatments to digital data encryption. The award honours individual inventors, or teams of inventors, who, through their pioneering work, respond to the challenges of our time, thereby contributing to progress and prosperity.