European Union News - Internal Market

According to figures in a report covering the period 2007-2008 published by the European Commission, EU television broadcasters are devoting an average of 63% of their air time to programmes made in the EU and 35% to independent works created by European producers. These data indicate a considerable degree of fulfilment of the objectives set by the Directive on audiovisual media services.

With its 23 official languages and over 40 regional and minority languages, the EU forms a unique multilingual community of countries and people. However, much of the potential brought by internal market to SMEs is lost because of the lack of necessary languages expertise. This potential will be the focus for this year European Day of Languages, to be held on 26 September.

The Internal Market Scoreboard presented by the European Commission on 23 September shows, among other things, that although the average transposition level of internal market rules in Member States is close to the 1% objective, the positive trend of recent years has stalled . For the first time, this Scoreboard also includes an enforcement table which provides an overview of Member state's compliance with internal market rules.

After a year of negotiations, the European Parliament has given on 22 September its final approval to a series of legislative measures in order to reform EU financial supervision system. This package of reforms will make a fundamental change in the way banks, stock markets and insurance companies are policed as of 2011.

The European Parliament has backed a set of proposals aiming to encourage cross-border e-trading and build consumer confidence. In this proposal, MEPs call to put in place measures in order to increase transparency and foster cross-border payment systems.

The European Commission has presented three complementary measures adopted in order to facilitate the roll out and take up of fast and ultra-fast broadband in the Union. The package adopted comprises a Commission Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access (NGA), a proposal for a Decision to establish a Radio Spectrum Policy Programme and a Broadband Communication outlining how best to encourage public and private investment in high and ultra-high speed networks.

The European Commission adopted on 17 September a proposal to provide better rail services for passenger and freight users by increasing competition on the railway market, strengthening the power of national regulators and improving the framework for investment in rail.

EU-wide investigation involving 26 Member States, and Norway and Iceland, into misleading advertising and unfair practices on websites selling consumer electronic goods has already shown results. 84% of the websites selling electronics, checked for breach of EU consumer rules, now comply with EU law, compared to 55% last year. It now remains to achieve the same success in the case ticket sites, where 60% of checked sites were flagged for further investigation.

The European Commission adopted on 16 September a draft decision on a EU-Morocco bilateral trade agreement for agri-food and fisheries products. The agreement will reinforce the position of European exporters on the Moroccan market, particularly exporters of processed agricultural products, representing a major offensive interest for the EU.

European Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, made a forceful reaction on 14 September over last developments in the situation of Roma people in France. In her statement, Commissioner Reading qualified the situation as "a disgrace" and warned France about the possibility to initiate an infringement action.

The Commission published its latest interim economic forecast on 13 September 2010. The underlying message of this update of GDP and inflation variables is that the EU economy, while still fragile, is recovering at a faster pace than previously envisaged. The updated projections include France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The seven countries concerned represent 79% of EU and almost 83% of Euro area GDP.