European Union News - European Union

The European Commission has taken a number of decisions to implement the organisational consequences of the allocation of portfolios to Commissioners. Two new Directorates-General have been created: DG Energy (ENER) and DG Climate Action (CLIM).

Several events have already been held in different cities of Europe, such as Helsinki, Sofía, Prague, Dublin, Budapest, Vienna, Oslo, Warsaw, Paris, Brussels or Madrid. The last event of the year took place in Lisbon in December. Now, The Hague, in Netherlands, is hosting tomorrow the last of these events.

The Ministers of Economy and Finance of the European Union are meeting in Brussels to look at some important matters, including systematically important financial institutions, the situation of Greece's public finances and the nomination of the future "number two" of the European Central Bank.

EU heads of state and government have pledged to help Greece tackle its debt crisis, if needed. At a meeting on 11 February in Brussels, convened by President Van Rompuy, they issued a statement stressing both responsibility by the Greek Government and EU solidarity.

MEPs gave the green light for EU funding to help Europe's unemployed start up small businesses. Credit will be made available to budding entrepreneurs through a "microfinance facility" funded partly from the existing Progress programme and partly from unallocated money in the EU budget.

The winners of the European Commission's third annual ‘Juvenes Translatores’ contest for schools have been announced. The 27 winners, one from each EU Member State, will be invited to Brussels in March to receive a prize from the European Commissioner responsible for multilingualism.

Europe's regional and local representatives have asserted their strengthened position under the new Lisbon treaty rules at the constituent plenary session of the Committee of the Regions' 2010-2015 mandate. 344 regional presidents, parliamentarians, mayors and county councillors from across Europe have met in Brussels to elect their new leadership, debate the political priorities of regions and local authorities in Europe for the next five years, and in particular the future of regional policy.

The European Parliament elected the new European Commission by 488 votes to 137, with 72 abstentions, in Strasbourg on Tuesday. The vote took the form of a single ballot on the whole College of Commissioners, consisting of one Commissioner from each of the 27 EU Member States.

50% of European teenagers give out personal information on the web – according to an EU study – which can remain online forever and can be seen by anybody. Today, Safer Internet Day, the European Commission is passing a message to teenagers: "Think before you post!"

The Commission has published the results of the public consultation on the EU 2020 strategy. It consists of two documents in the context of the preparation for the Europe 2020 strategy, the successor to the Lisbon strategy.