European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission published an updated guide to explain how EU rules in the fields of state aid, public procurement and the internal market apply to services of general economic interest (SGEI). For instance, under the new rules, a public service compensation of an amount below €500,000 per undertaking over three years is deemed free of state aid.

The European Commission is co-financing a plan to start immediately for one month that includes the establishment of the presence of unlabelled horse meat in foods, and the detection of possible residues of phenylbutazone in horse meat. Phenylbutazone is a veterinary medicinal product whose use in food producing animals, including horses, is illegal.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion which states that if the EU is to meet its energy and climate policy goals, it will need to adopt a common energy tax regime. The opinion suggested creating a common tax framework which would link the tax rate to the energy source and factor in CO2 emissions.

The European Commission proposed to the Council to give its green light for negotiations on a new international agreement on trade in services. Together, the 21 initial countries (WTO Members) participating in the negotiations represent more than two thirds of world trade in services. The EU wants to develop new rules on trade in services.

The 2013 European Enterprise Promotion Awards, that recognise the best public initiatives and public-private partnerships in promoting business development and entrepreneurship, are open to applications. On this occasion, a new category rewarding successful projects contributing to the green economy has been added.

The European Commission welcomed the signature of a tri-lateral intergovernmental agreement (IGA) as an essential step in the preparation of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP). TAP is an important gas pipeline between Italy, Albania and Greece with a starting capacity of minimum 10 billion cubic metres per annum (bcma).

Eurostat published a flash estimate for the fourth quarter of 2012 which indicates that compared with the previous quarter the GDP fell by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU. Over the whole year 2012, GDP fell by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU.

The European Commission published the details of the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) to be implemented under enhanced cooperation. The details are set out in a Commission's proposal that include certain limited changes compared to the original one, to take into account the fact that the tax will be implemented on a smaller geographical scale than originally foreseen.

The EU and US have decided to take their economic relationship to a higher level by agreeing to launch negotiations for a comprehensive trade and investment agreement. When negotiations are completed, this EU-US agreement would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated – and it could add 0.5% to the EU's annual economic output.

The European Commission proposed new rules to improve the safety of consumer products circulating in the Single Market and to step-up market surveillance concerning all non-food products, including those imported from third countries. The two legislative proposals are complemented by a multi-annual plan for market surveillance setting out 20 concrete actions to be undertaken from now to 2015 to improve market surveillance.