European Union News - European Union

Council Decision 2008/633/JHA, of June 23rd, concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS) by designated authorities of Member States and by Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences, was published in the OJEU on August 13th. This Decision complements Regulation (EC) Nº 767/2008 concerning the VIS and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas, the so-called “VIS Regulation”, which was published on the same date

The European Research Council (ERC) has released details of the first round of recipients of its Advanced Grants in the physical sciences and engineering fields. Some 105 of the almost 1,000 applicants from these disciplines have been allocated funding.

Favourable weather conditions and an increase in the planted area farmed should lead to a total cereals harvest close to 301 million tonnes year 2008 in the European Union, 43 million tonnes more than in 2007. This represents an increase of 16% on the 2007 harvest and 9% on the past five years' average production.

The European Commission has decides that the majority of rules relating to aviation security will be made available to the public. The publication of the EU list of prohibited articles will make it easier for passengers to know what they can, and cannot, take on board an aircraft, while it increases transparency of EU rules in this domain.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) published in the Official Journal of the European Union on August 7th, a vacancy notice for filling a post of Director of the Directorate for Administration and Finance (grade AD 14) on the basis of Article 29.2, of the Staff Regulations.

The EU's Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL) and Member State registries will be connected to the UN's International Transaction Log (ITL) before December 2008 at the latest. The link will mean carbon credits issued under the Clean Development Mechanism can be transferred to the registries of EU Member States.

The Council published in August 6th a set of Decisions aiming to step up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime. These Decisions include legal provisions to strengthen cross-border cooperation, specially in the domain of intelligence and share of information in cases of terrorism. They set out the basic principles and establish the administrative provisions.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on August 6th the Council Regulation (EC) Nº 732/2008 of July 22nd 2008 applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences for the period from January 1st 2009 to December 31st 2011, and amending Regulations (EC) Nº 552/97, (EC) Nº 1933/2006 and Commission Regulations (EC) Nº 1100/2006 and (EC) Nº 964/2007.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the European Union's approach to a global climate change agreement up to and beyond 2012 when the current Kyoto Protocol targets will end. Stakeholders and the general public are invited to put forward their views on a number of critical issues before September 29th.

Brussels has presented a proposal to revise the current legislation on the protection of the ozone layer, aiming to simplify the current legislation and reflect the progress made in phasing out ozone-depleting substances in the EU. Although this progress has been good so far, a number of challenges, that need to be addressed globally, still remain. The ozone layer is expected to recover to pre-1980 levels by 2050-2075.

The Official Journal of the European Union published in July 31st, a Notice of Recruitment of a new Director for Europol, the European Law Enforcement Organisation which aims at improving the effectiveness and co-operation of the competent authorities in the Member States in preventing and combating international organised crime.