European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission adopted two proposals, the Hercule III and Pericles 2020 programmes, with a budget of €110 million and €7.7 million respectively in order to protect the financial interests of the EU and Member States' budgets and fight fraud in the EU.

The World Trade Organisation's negotiations on government procurement concluded successfully after the Parties of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) reached an agreement on an updated set of tender rules and additional market access commitments. In total, 15 Parties, with the European Union counting as one Party, made commitments to expand market access that they offer to foreign companies.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a special report in which analyses whether the Commission has implemented procedures that enable effective management of State aid control. The assessment concludes that although the Commission has made efforts to ensure that all relevant State aid cases are handled, its systems do not guarantee that all aid is captured.

The Energy Roadmap 2050 presented by the Commission explains the consequences of a carbon free energy system and the policy framework needed. According to the Commission, the Roadmap will allow Member States to make the required energy choices and create a stable business climate for private investment, especially until 2030.

The European Commission has made legally binding commitments offered by IBM corporation of making spare parts and technical information swiftly available, under commercially reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, to independent mainframe maintainers.

The Council conclusions on the open internet and net neutrality in Europe invite Member States to ensure the rapid development of broadband. Telecommunications Ministers also agreed on the need to ensure the open and neutral character of the Internet as their policy objective.

A special report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) shows that customs procedure 42, which is a mechanism an EU importer uses in order to obtain a VAT exemption, has led to significant losses to national budgets. ECA calculates that the extrapolated amount of the losses in 2009 is approximately €2200 million.

The Transport Council achieved a political agreement on the draft directive on a single European railway area. In addition the European Ministers reached a partial agreement on a draft regulation on tachographs uses in road transport and a general approach on the update of the directive on the minimum level of training for seafarers.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has made public the list of denaturants that could be used to make alcohol unfit for human consumption following the addition of another element to it. With this harmonisation, the Commission seeks to mitigate both fraud and tax evasion practices related to alcoholic beverages.