European Union News - European Union

The European Commission wants to tackle obstacles to cross frontier trade in defence related products within the EU, thereby facilitating cross-border procurement of Member States’ armed forces and industrial cooperation in Europe. So far, the circulation of defence related products within the internal market is constrained by a web of heterogeneous and disproportionate national licensing procedures.

The Council of the European Union has published in the Official Journal of the European Union the Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgements and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions. This Decisions aims to enhance the prospects of the sentenced person’s being reintegrated into society, by enabling that person to preserve some personal ties, but also to improve monitoring of compliance with probation measures and alternative sanctions.

The European Commission has updated the lists of Contracting Authorities and utilities that have to follow EU public procurement rules. The lists will give citizens and businesses the opportunity to identify which public authorities in the EU have to submit their public contracts to EU-wide tender procedures.

At the end of the year, the French Presidency of the EU will draw to a close and the Czech Republic will take over the reins for the first time since it joined the EU in 2004. With occasion of the celebration of the European Conference on Research Infrastructures (ECRI2008) held in Versailles (France), Czech Vice-Minister for Education, Youth and Sports, Vlastimil Ruzicka, presented his country's plans in the fields of higher education and research for the first half of 2009.

The last European Council under French presidency, chaired by  the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, was held in Brussels on December 11th and 12th. A historic agreement was reached on climate protection and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The Council also reached an agreement on the European economic recovery plan, the Lisbon Treaty and the European Security and Defence Policy.

European Commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner, presented on December, 9th, the findings of the "Regions 2020" report, which provides a first prospective analysis of the likely regional impact of four of the biggest challenges facing Europe: globalisation, demographic trends, climate change and energy use and supply.

If a European bank fails, citizens' savings should be guaranteed up to €100,000, said the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs on December 8th, endorsing a Commission proposal to raise the deposit guarantee to this amount. The committee also proposed that holders should be given faster access to their deposits in emergencies and that a mechanism should be established for cross-border cooperation in the event of another economic crisis.

he European transport, telecommunications and energy ministers meeting, held in Brussels on December, 8 th under the presidency of Dominique Bussereau, the French Minister of State for Transport, was devoted to air, land and maritime transport. In this meeting EU transport ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the development of safe, sustainable transport focusing in a major part on maritime sector.

The European Commission warmly welcomed the formal decision by the members of the Committee on Government Procurement to adopt the accession of The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei) to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, on December, 9th, 2008, FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2009-1 Call for Proposals, related to the specific “Capacities” Work Programme of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013).

On November, 28th, the Council of the European Union adopted Framework Decision 2008/919/JHA, amending Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA. This Framework Decision aims to increase further approximated legislations in Member States in order to strengthen freedom, security and justice in the European Union.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, published on December, 5th, 2008, the Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of November, 19th, on temporary agency work, which ensures the protection of temporary agency workers and recognises temporarywork agencies as employers.