European Union News - European Union

The European Commission welcomes BioMarine, an international maritime forum on oceans sustainability an innovative solutions, organised under the aegis of the French Presidency of the European Union, which gathers business, scientific and political communities. This is a major event which will enable Europe's maritime community to reinforce the development of an integrated approach to maritime affairs.

The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded this year to Chinese political activist Hu Jia. With this year's award he European Parliament firmly and resolutely acknowledges the daily struggle for freedom of all Chinese human rights defenders. The prize ceremony will take place in Strasbourg on December 17th.

The European Parliament has adopted a proposal for a new programme aiming to promote safe use of the Internet by children. The programme, whose budget for the period 2009-2013 is some 55 M€, will support actions aiming to ban illegal contents, sexual abuses, and prevent  the risk of bullying or grooming. Social networks and communications with mobile phones will also be a priority.

The European Parliament supports the idea that EU needs a coordinated response on a range of fronts in order to tackle the financial crisis and limit its impact on economic growth, jobs and small businesses. In a resolution on last EU summit, they also call for measures to improve financial supervision and look at issues from climate change to the Caucuses. MEPs held a debate over those issues with  EU President-in-Office Sarkozy.

Commissioner-designate Catherine Ashton faced a hearing at the European Parliament on Monday, October 20th. MEPs questioned Baroness Ashton on the future of the Doha Round, the financial crisis, bilateral trade negotiations, as well as on her own experience.

The Welsh Assembly Government host the European auditors annual meeting in Cardiff.

The Council has put forward a Proposal for a Decision on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and Australia on trade in wine. This new document, which would replace the 1994 Agreement, aims to facilitate and promote trade in wine originating in the Community and in Australia.

EuropeAid  Officice has launched on the 15 october 2008 a call for tender for a technical assistance for assessments in macroeconomics, public finance management and performance measurement.

The European Commission has decided to launch infringement proceedings against 10 Member States for failure to implement certain Internal Market Directives into national law. The Commission will refer Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom to the Court over non-implementation of a Directive on recognition of professional qualifications. The Commission will also refer Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Portugal to the Court over non-implementation of a Directive on reinsurance.

The European Union and countries of the Caribbean region signed on October 15th, 2008, an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which will strengthen ties between the two regions and promote regional integration in the Caribbean. The EPA is the first genuinely comprehensive North-South trade and development agreement in the global economy, and includes a package of measures to stimulate trade, investment and innovation, and to promote sustainable development, build a regional market among Caribbean countries and help eliminate poverty.

Due to the current International economic scenario, the European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 16th, some amendments on Regulation (EC) Nº 1725/2003 adopting certain international accounting standards, in accordance with Regulation (EC) Nº 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 and International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 7.

The European Commission has put forward a revision of EU rules on deposit guarantee schemes that puts into action the commitments made by EU Finance Ministers on October 7th. The new rules are designed to improve depositor protection and to maintain the confidence of depositors in the financial safety net. In the first stage of the application of these new rules bank deposits protection will be increased to 50,000 €.