European Union News - Internal Market

The European Central Bank (ECB) published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 9 September 2010 Decision BCE/2010/8 amending some aspects of the Rules on Procurement. The changes introduced by the Bank affect, in general terms, to the compliance to new thresholds in public procurement, as well as certain aspects related to certain purchases and the Bank's relationships with national central banks and other authorities.

Contributions to this consultation will feed into the review of the PSI Directive, part of the Digital Agenda for Europe that aims to contribute to the EU goals of increasing competitiveness, innovation and job creation. The consultation will run until 30 November 2010.

The ongoing negotiations on the multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) were again object of debate with the Commission at the plenary session of the European Parliament, where MEPs have reiterated their critics to the lack of transparency in this process and potentially objectionable content.

The European Commission report on the application of the Directive on minimum standards on procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status shows that procedural guarantees still vary considerably across the EU. Moreover, the vagueness of the standards set by the Directive and flaws in the implementation at national level may lead to administrative errors. The Commission adopted on 21 October 2009 a proposal to recast the Directive in order to remedy to these deficiencies.

China is the EU's second trading partner after the USA and its biggest source of imports. The EU is China's largest export market. Both the EU and China therefore have a real interest in ensuring that safe, genuine and legal products can easily enter each other’s markets.

The European Parliament has endorsed a report proposing a series of measures in order to improve transparency in the human food supply chain in Europe. Measures such as cutting the maximum payment period to 30 days, creating an EU farm prices and margins observatory or the publication of a list with non-complying companies, would increase transparency in the food supply and make it more equitable.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) endorsed on 7 September changes to the manner in which the EU's stability and growth pact is implemented in order to allow a "European semester" to be introduced as part of a reform of EU provisions on economic policy coordination.

The European Parliament has successfully concluded negotiations with the European Commission and EU governments on the future shape of financial supervision in Europe. With the agreement reached on 2 September, the institutions agree on the setting of the new European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) for risks to the stability of the financial system and three European Supervision Authorities (ESAs).

The European Commission has adopted a decision recognising the adequacy of the auditor oversight authorities of Australia and the United States of America. This adequacy refers to the ability of a third country authority to fulfil the requirements set out in the EU's Statutory Audit Directive (2006/43/EC) and, in particular, its capacity to enter into reciprocal working arrangements with the EU Member States on the exchange of audit working papers or other relevant documents between competent authorities.

According to new data released by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), GDP increased by 1.0% in both the Euro area and the EU27 during the second quarter of 2010 remains unchanged. In the first quarter of 2010, growth rates were +0.3% in both zones.

After the surge in July 2010, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) continued to improve in both the EU and the euro area, albeit at a slower pace. It rose to 102.7 in the EU and to 101.8 in the euro area. In both the EU and the euro area the ESI is above its long-term average.