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EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.
EU News: The 2011 Report on the Public Finances in EMU takes a look at the recent developments in public finances, analyses new ways of assessing debt sustainability and describes the changes to budgetary surveillance in the EU. These reforms put prevention & debt reduction at the centre of EU budgetary surveillance, reflecting on the lessons of the crisis.
EU News: The EU have published some FAQs on the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights.
EU News: Last week the European Parliament approved the Commission's proposal on the Public Regulated Service (PRS) access rules for Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite system. Galileo will set up an enhanced global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service. It will offer five services, the Public Regulated Service (PRS), the Open Service, the Search-and-Rescue Service, the Safety-of-Life Service and the Commercial Service.
These enhanced signals protect the services against threats, such as ‘spoofing’ that can distort signals guiding a car or a ship, and provide inaccurate positioning to e.g. a police car or an ambulance. The PRS could be made available after Galileo becomes operational in 2014, together with two other initial Galileo services, the Open Service and the Search-And-Rescue Service.
EU News: The European Parliament has adopted the European Commission's proposal to strengthen the European Union's border management agency (Frontex). Frontex will have more equipment & personnel from Member States at its disposal, thus enabling it to better coordinate the border patrol operations of EU Member States.
EU News: How Member States are implementing EU Recommendations ensuring children can enjoy the digital world confidently and safely are reviewed by the European Commission in a recent report. In concrete terms, the report shows that EU countries are not responding adequately, or have varying approaches to tackling & reporting illegal or harmful content, ensuring children access age-appropriate content, making social networks safer for children and protecting children from harmful video games.
EU News: The SME Envoys met in Brussels last week to shape a strategy aimed at freeing the growth potential & competitiveness of SMEs. Key elements agreed are: making it possible to start a company in 3 days for less than €100, increasing access to finance & public procurement and reducing bureaucracy, including by introducing an SME-friendly test for all new legislation at EU and Member State level.
The test should ensure that no new obstacles arise that could hamper the smooth running of Europe’s 25m small businesses. 12 countries have already made the SME test a reality, and several more are in the process of introducing it.
EU News: The European Commission has set a clear target for increasing the numbers of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other legal practitioners trained in European law. In a policy paper agreed recently, the EC aims to ensure that half of all legal practitioners in the European Union – around 700,000 – participate in some form of European judicial training by 2020. The EC will support training through the European e-Justice Portal.
EU News: The European Commission recently welcomed the launch of 'Education at a Glance 2011', a new report which gathers statistical data on investment in education, student-teacher ratios, teaching hours, graduate numbers and results.
EU News: From 16 to 22 September 2011, hundreds of European towns & cities will participate in the tenth edition of European Mobility Week, inviting citizens to a wide range of activities around sustainable mobility. This year's theme – Alternative Mobility – aims to promote resource-efficient alternatives to the private cars that still dominate urban transport. The week encourages local authorities & citizens to highlight the many positive impacts of other means of transport.
EU News: The European Commission has launched a public consultation to find out how the European research environment can be radically improved. The goal is to achieve the European Research Area (ERA) by 2014, creating a genuine single market for knowledge, research & innovation. The consultation runs until 30 November 2011 – See ‘Consultations’ section for more information.
