EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.

EU News: The European Commission has asked Austria, Estonia, Germany, and the United Kingdom to notify their national implementing measures regarding Common Safety Indicators for railways.  These 4 Member States are the only ones not to have notified the Commission on their national legislation complying with a directive on Common Safety Indicators for railway safety and common methods to calculate accident costs.
Press release and related links
 
EU News: Last week saw the opening of the second annual EU Careers 'Administrator' recruitment drive, which aims to attract applications from the best of the best from across Europe to work in fields such as Law, Economics and policy development.

Overall the 2011 selection procedure will be aiming to identify around 300 successful candidates to become new EU officials, serving the interests of over 500m citizens across Europe. Interested applicants can find out more and apply online at www.eu-careers.eu.  The registration period closes at midday CET (Brussels time) on 14 April 2011.
Press release
 
EU News: The European Commission has formally requested the UK to amend its rules on local real estate taxes for students, on the basis that they discriminate against students subject to UK council taxes, but studying in another Member State.  
 
Under the UK's community taxes legislation, students who reside in the UK and decide to pursue their education in England or Wales are entitled to a discount in community real estate taxes.  However, this discount is not granted to students subject to tax in the UK, but studying in another Member State. The EC considers that these discriminatory provisions are in breach of EU law on the free movement of people and dissuade students from exercising their rights to study in another EU country.
Press release and related links
 
EU News: Plans to allow baby food makers to claim that adding the natural fatty acid DHA to baby food ‘contributes to the normal visual development of infants up to 12 months of age’ have been rejected by the Environment Committee.  MEPs believe more research is needed on the effects of DHA supplements.  To stop the health claim being permitted, this vote needs to be confirmed by Parliament as a whole.  A plenary vote is scheduled for April 2011.
Press release and related links
 
EU News: The European Commission has proposed a common system for calculating the tax base of businesses operating in the EU.  The aim of this proposal is to ‘significantly reduce the administrative burden, compliance costs and legal uncertainties that businesses in the EU currently face in having to comply with up to 27 different national systems for determining their taxable profits’.
Press release and related links ~ Comment from PwC
 
EU News: In Europe, there are around 16m international couples, and at least 650,000 of them face legal questions about divorce / death of partner every year.  Legal divergences between the 27 EU Member States create an incentive for ‘forum shopping’ or a ‘rush to the court’. This happens when one spouse – usually the wealthier one – rushes to a court where he/she thinks the outcome will be the most beneficial.
 
The European Commission is therefore proposing EU-wide rules to bring legal clarity to the property rights for married international couples and for registered partnerships with an international dimension.  The two proposed Regulations would help identify which law applies to a couple's property rights and the responsible court.  The Regulations also provide for rules for recognising & enforcing court judgments on a couple's property in all EU Member States, through a single procedure.
Press release and related links
 
EU News: US requests for EU citizens' banking data under an EU-US counter-terrorism data-sharing deal are too general & abstract to allow Europol to check whether they meet EU data protection standards, and Europol seems to be merely rubber-stamping them, said worried Civil Liberties Committee MEPs debating a watchdog report on the deal's first 6 months.  This should be borne in mind when Parliament is asked to approve other data transfer agreements, they added.
 
The JSB had made some recommendations for improvement, stressing that compliance with them is vital if Europol is to properly fulfil its role: for instance, requests must contain more detailed information, specific to each request, and the US authorities may need to provide certain additional information.
Related press release ~  EU-US Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreements ~ Related press release
 
Newswire – WWF: A UN Committee on environmental access rights has found that the EU Courts must give citizens, community groups and NGOs the right to challenge the decisions of European institutions, including the European Commission and the European Council, that affect the environment. 
 
Until now, the EU courts have adopted a strict interpretation of the provisions of the Treaty of the European Community (TEC) concerning access, meaning that no individual or civil society group in the environmental field has been able to challenge the legality of a decision made by one of the institutions unless it was addressed to them personally.  This has included decisions made in the form of EC Regulations and Decisions, which can have far-reaching environmental consequences.
Press release and related links
 
EU News: The Commission has launched a public consultation (closes on the 13 of May 2011) to invite all interested parties to share their views on the best policy measures to be taken to make Europe’s security industry a world leader – See ‘Consultations’ section for more information.
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