EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.
EU News: The EU has launched the European e-Justice portal – an electronic one-stop-shop for access to justice throughout the EU. The web site benefits citizens, businesses, lawyers and judges with cross-border legal questions and boosts mutual understanding of different legal systems by contributing to the creation of a single area of justice.
With more than 12,000 pages of content, the first version provides information & links on laws and practices in all Member States. For example, the portal offers information on legal aid, judicial training, and videoconferencing, as well as links to legal databases, online insolvency and land registers.
New information, tools and functions will be added to the portal in the next few years. Fact sheets on defendants' rights and victims' rights in all EU Member States will be available in early 2011, including, for example, information on how road traffic offences are dealt with in different countries. These fact sheets will serve as a basic reference tool for legal practitioners as well as citizens.
Press release ~ European e-Justice Portal ~ Videos on e-Justice ~ Roadmap on e-Justice ~ Council Action Plan on European e-Justice
EU News: A work plan which allows Zimbabwe the possibility to make limited exports of rough diamonds from its Marange diamond field has been agreed at the meeting organised by the Chair of the Kimberley Process in St Petersburg on 14 and 15 July 2010.
The Kimberley Process grew out of discussions in May 2000 in Kimberley, South Africa among interested governments, the international diamond industry and civil society, as a unique initiative to combat ‘conflict diamonds’ – rough diamonds used to finance devastating conflicts in some of Africa’s diamond-producing countries.
Press release ~ EU and the Kimberley Process ~ IP/10/856
EU News: The European Commission has presented an overview of existing EU instruments regulating the collection, storage or exchange of personal data for the purpose of law enforcement or migration management.
The communication clarifies the main purposes of these instruments, their structure, the types of personal data they cover, the list of authorities that have access to such data and the provisions governing data protection & retention.
The communication clarifies the main purposes of these instruments, their structure, the types of personal data they cover, the list of authorities that have access to such data and the provisions governing data protection & retention.
FSA: An EU-wide health warning must now be put on any food or drink that still contains the colours that are thought to cause hyperactivity in some children. This is following the Southampton Study, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, which suggested a possible link between consumption of 6 food colours and hyperactivity in children.
Any food & drink containing any of the 6 colours, except drinks with more than 1.2% alcohol, will now have to provide a warning on the label that the colour ‘may have effects on activity and attention in children’. This becomes mandatory across the EU from 20 July 2010. Food & drink produced before 20 July 2010 can continue to be marketed, so it may take time for newly labelled products to appear on some store shelves.
