European Union News - European Union

The European Parliament endorsed today the appointment of Portuguese Jose Manuel Barroso as president of the European Commission for the next five years. This will be his second term as head of the institution he leads since 2004.

No fewer than 93 Master's level translation programmes from 24 Member States and three non-EU countries participated in the call, and 34 of these have been selected to be members of the EMT network for an initial period of four years. A further call will be launched in 2010.The Commission's initiative has been warmly welcomed by the academic community.

The EP has unveiled three films which will compete for this years LUX Prize, given annually by the EP to support European Cinema, in the framework of Venice Festival. These are "Eastern Plays", by the director Kamen Kalev, which is a joint Bulgarian-Sweden production; "Sturm" by Hans-Christian Schmid which is produced by a German, Danish and Dutch team, and "Welcome" by Philippe Lioret which is a French production.

After the holiday break, the European Parliament holds between 14 and 17 September its first plenary meeting of the political year. Important issues, such as the vote of investiture of the President of the Commission's inaugural address Jerzy Buzek and the G-20 in Pittsburgh occupy the agenda of this meeting.

MEPs will vote on Wednesday 16 September on whether to appoint José Manuel Barroso for a second term as President of the European Commission.

In less than two weeks, on 24–25 September, the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will meet in Pittsburgh, USA, for the autumn’s G20 summit. The global economic crisis and the financing of action on climate change are set to be the main items on the agenda.

GDP has been since the Great Depression the indicator that reflects the value of all goods and services produced or provided a country in a  year, but does not accurately reflect the general welfare. Therefore, the EU looks for other ways to measure the economic capacity of countries and assess their economic progress.

The Official Journal of the European Union has issued a call for proposals for the appointment of a new Ombudsman for the term 2009-2014. Diamandourus Nikiforos, the current ombudsman, could renew their charge.

To coordinate EU’s position in view of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Swedish Prime Minister and European Council President Fredrik Reinfeldt today called for an extra informal European Council meeting to take place in Brussels on Thursday the 17th of September.

The President of the European Commission has sent the President of the European Parliament a document which specifies the objectives that he believes should guide the partnerships between the Commission and Parliament during the next 5 years. It says that "Europe is facing stark choices in today's interdependent world. Either we work together to rise to the challenges. Or we condemn ourselves to irrelevance. I will redouble my efforts to make an ambitious Europe happen. A Europe that puts people at the heart of the policy agenda and projects European values and interests in the world. A Europe that nurtures new sources of growth and drives forward smart regulation of sound markets that work for people. A Europe of freedom and solidarity."

At the informal finance ministers’ lunch meeting in Brussels on September 3rd, ministers of finance from the 27 Member States agreed on common EU positions on the key issues to be discussed at the upcoming G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh, including financial market reform, strengthening international financial institutions, and combating climate change. Among the priority objectives of the Union is to end the "old culture" on bonus compensations to executives in the financial sector.