.gif)
EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.
EU News: Most people take it for granted that they can hop on a bus to go shopping, surf the Internet or enjoy a television series, but for the 80m Europeans with a disability, there may be major obstacles that put these activities out of reach. The European Commission has adopted a new strategy to break down these barriers.
Press release ~ European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 "A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier-Free Europe" and supporting documents ~ EU Charter of Fundamental Rights ~ UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
EU News: The European Commission is taking advantage of technological developments to consolidate the suppression of Bluetongue disease in the EU. Last week's proposal to amend Directive 2000/75/EC, expected to enter into force in 2011, updates current rules on vaccination and brings them in line with recent technological developments in vaccine production, thus allowing the use of vaccines in the whole of the EU.
EU News: Since 2006, the EU has trained 23,000 professionals worldwide to improve food safety through its Better Training for Safer Food initiative (BTSF). Now the European Commission is seeking to further improve this initiative.
It has launched a dialogue with all key stakeholders, including the African Union, at a 2-day high-level conference in Brussels. A working document recently adopted by the Commission on the BTSF programme serves as the basis for discussions.
EU News: The European Commission has published a Communication on ‘the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) towards 2020 – Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future’. The paper outlines 3 options for further reform. Following discussion of these ideas, the Commission will present formal legislative proposals in mid-2011.
Press release ~ Commission Communication on the CAP towards 2020 ~ Background note ~ Click HERE and scroll down for description of the 3 Broad Policy Options
EU News: Anyone in the world can now access over 14m digitised books, maps, photographs, paintings, film & music clips from cultural institutions across Europe through Europe's digital library Europeana. The potential for using Europeana in schools was demonstrated by entrants in the recent eLearning Awards organised by European Schoolnet. The winning project, from Portmarnock Community School in Ireland, involved pupils creating their own blogs about figures from history using digital resources.
