European Union News - Internal Market

In a joint statement of Vice President Joaquín Almunia and UEFA President Michel Platini, confirmed that, with a view of promoting fair competition between football clubs, the interaction between the application to professional football of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules by UEFA are in line with the state aid control in professional football by the Commission. Mr Almunia also expressed his concern regarding the increasing level of indebtedness of many European clubs.

The European e-Skills Week opening event took place in Brussels on 19 March in Brussels. This years' theme is “There is a job waiting for you”, with the main aim to mobilise stakeholders to inform young people on how to acquire e-skills and find jobs in the digital economy. Thus, numerous activities and events will take place during the e-Skills Week in Europe.

On the Green Paper published now, the Commission wonders on how existing and proposed EU measures already address shadow banking activities. In this context, it questions on five key areas relating to banking which are asset management, securities lending and repurchase agreements, securitisation, and other shadow banking entities.

The euro area balance of payments in January 2012 recorded a surplus of €4.5 billion. In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net outflows of €53 billion (non-seasonally adjusted). In addition, the ECB also published that the amount outstanding of shares/units issued by euro area investment funds other than money market funds was €220 billion higher in January 2012 than in December 2011.

The Foreign Affairs (Trade) Council meeting ended on 16 of March with the agreement of promoting a multilateral agenda for trade and development besides providing improved market access for developing countries, working towards sustainable development through a green economy, and developing more focused, targeted and coordinated Aid for Trade.

Compared with the previous quarter, Eurostat estimations foresee that the number of persons employed decreased by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU27 in the fourth quarter of 2011. In the third quarter of 2011, employment decreased by 0.2% in both zones. In addition, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 2.8% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with 2.6% for the previous quarter.

MEPs approved the deal with USA and Canada that puts an end to the 20-year hormone beef trade war. With the new deal, the EU to keep its ban on imports of hormone-treated beef, in return for increasing its quota for imports of high-quality beef from the US and Canada. The increase in EU import quotas will take effect from August 2012.

The public consultation launched by the European Commission is intended to gather views on future film support rules. In particular, the consultation questions on the state aid criteria it proposes to use to assess Member States' film support schemes in future. The contributions can be made by 14 of June, and they will be included in a final Communication which is due to be adopted in the second half of 2012.

The European Union, together with the US and Japan, launched a second challenge of China's export restrictions on raw materials including 17 rare earths. China imposes a set of export restrictions, including export quotas, export duties and additional requirements on raw materials that the EU considers are in violation of general WTO rules.

According to what it was agreed by the Council and after the assessment of the Eurogroup, the timely correction of the excessive deficit in Spain should be ensured by an additional frontloaded effort of the order of 0,5% of GDP, beyond what has already been announced by the Spanish authorities so far, and by an early adoption and strict implementation of the new mechanisms in the Budget Stability Law.

The European Commission welcomed the WTO appeal ruling in the “Boeing case” which confirms that the United States granted billions of dollars in illegally subsides to Boeing under WTO rules. The EU now expects the US to fully comply with this ruling and to implement the findings and obligations by withdrawing these injurious subsidies or their adverse effects.