EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.

EU news: Negotiations on next year's EU budget were suspended recently due to disagreement between Parliament & Council over possible solutions to counter the lack of remaining funds in the 2012 budget.  If there is no agreement within 21 days, trilateral talks continue and set the basis of a new draft budget for 2013 to be presented by the Commission.  This would need to be approved in Parliament’s Budgets Committee and plenary - as well as by the Council - before the end of 2012.
Press release & links
 
EU news: A new European law to improve rights for an estimated 75m crime victims across the European Union each year was published in the Official Journal – the EU's statute book – last week.  
Press release & links
 
CBI: The CBI is calling for political agreement on a new European energy and climate change package by 2014
 to guarantee the future of the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).  While the recession has caused the carbon price to drop, the real reason the EU ETS is not delivering is its short-term focus, with an emissions cap only until 2020.
Press release & links
 
EU News: The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has issued his report on the findings of some on-the-spot inspections conducted between 15 June and 18 July 2012 on the premises of thirteen Brussels-based EU institutions & bodies.
 
These thematic inspections were one of the measures announced in the Follow-up Report of February 2012, outlining the status of compliance of EU institutions and bodies with the 2010 EDPS Video-surveillance Guidelines (see EDPS website) (EDPS/05/12). The report, which is not published, contains recommendations for the 13 bodies on how to improve the way in which information about video-surveillance is provided to the general public.
Press release & links
 
EU News: The European Commission has agreed with international partners on new internationally harmonised rules on Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS) and Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDWS) for commercial vehicles.  
 
EU legislation already sets out dates for the obligatory introduction of these safety enhancing technologies in the EU.   To promote safety internationally and help the European automotive industry export trade, it is important that these systems are based on globally harmonised standards.
Press release & links
 
EU News: An efficient, interconnected & transparent European internal energy market will offer citizens & businesses secure & sustainable energy supplies at lowest possible cost.  With the recent Communication on how to make the internal energy market work the Commission calls on Member States to step up their efforts to transpose and implement the existing EU internal energy market rules.  The Commission will work with Member States to empower consumers and to reduce state interventions which distort markets.
Press release & links
 
EU News: The Commission has launched a Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources, a strategy for ensuring that enough good quality water is available to meet the needs of people, the economy and the environment.
 
EU waters are not doing well in terms of quality, despite improvements in recent years.  Water quantity is of equal concern with water scarcity spreading in Europe and extreme events (like floods) increasing in too many Member States.
Press release & links
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story