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New European Commission guidelines have been issued warning that, under EU law, road charging schemes must not discriminate against foreign drivers.  The aim is to assist Member States who are considering introducing new charging schemes for private cars. 

The Europoean Commission has proposed to boost innovation to tackle water related challenges by creating a cross-border European Partnership on Water .  It aims to bring together small and medium sized firms, the research community, local governments, water-using industries, the financial and water sectors to accelerate the development and uptake of innovative solutions. 

A list of 222 health claims has been approved by the European Commission providing legal clarity to food manufacturers on the health claims they can or cannot make. 

New price caps for mobile data roaming are estimated to save a typical business person travelling in the EU over €1000 (about £804) a year.  This is as a result of the mobile roaming Regulation which will be extended to include price caps for data downloads from 1 July 2012. 

The European Commission has proposed to update VAT rules to ensure the uniform tax treatment of all types of vouchers across all Member States. 

The European Commission has launched a €34.8 million (£27.9 million) call for eco-innovation projects.  Businesses and entrepreneurs from across Europe can apply for funding to help bring novel environmental projects to the market. 

The Council has now adopted a regulation for new rules on administration cooperation in excise duties.  The new rules remove the need for manual collection of operation statistics on the movement of excise goods, replacing the current procedures with an improved electronic one.

The latest Enterprise Capital fund will target high-growth cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.

The trade union UNI Europa Hair & Beauty and the hairdressing employers, Coiffure EU, have reached a new agreement setting out clear guidance for hairdressers to help them work in a healthy and safe environment throughout their careers.

A new scheme has been launched, to help small and medium sized businesses become registered for the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and the Enterprise Europe Network in Yorkshire is an active partner.

 

EU Member States have been given 18 months longer to implement a 2004 Directive on the health & safety aspects of exposure to electromagnetic fields, with a new deadline of  31 October 2013.

The European Commission has adopted its Monitoring Report on Croatia’s accession preparations.  This is part of a regular 6-monthly monitoring formality and highlights the areas where further efforts are necessary in order for Croatia to be fully ready for membership on 1 July 2013.   

The opening of the final calls for Europe’s premier mechanism for funding collaborative research and development, Framework 7, is rapidly approaching.

19 organisations from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom are this year's winners of the energy efficiency awards for buildings and lighting (GreenBuilding and GreenLight). 

The European Commission has launched the ‘We Mean Business’ campaign which aims to encourage companies to create more trainee placements, to boost young people’s skills and employability.

A new report from the European Commission illustrates how the top performing Member States have recycling rates of up to 70% and are turning waste from a problem into a resource.

Bristol, Copenhagen and Frankfurt have been chosen as the three finalists in the competition to find Europe's Green Capital for 2014.  They have been selected from the 18 cities that applied for the 2014 award. 

The European Commission is acting to dramatically reduce unnecessary administrative burdens for anyone registering a car in another Member State.   

The Commission is scrutinising current tax provisions in Member States, to ensure they do not discriminate against the estimated 1.2 million plus people who work cross-border.   

The European Regulation banning the use of phosphates and limiting the content of other phosphorous compounds in consumer laundry detergents has been adopted as law and begins to apply from 30 June 2013 .  Similar restrictions will apply to automatic dishwater detergents for consumers in 2017. 

A series of new and updated initiatives has been announced by the European Commission Vice President, Antonio Tajani, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship to help small enterprises go international. 

The European Commission has published an extensive survey – the first of its kind – looking at the views and attitudes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) towards resource efficiency and green markets. 

A new Directive has been adopted which will allow EU Member States to grant exemptions from European company accounting requirements for very small businesses, in order to reduce administrative burdens upon them.
 

The European Commission is proposing to improve business opportunities for EU firms in procurement markets.  The main objective of the initiative is to help open worldwide public procurement markets and to ensure European businesses have fair access to them.

To make the EU single market work better for workers and for business, the Commission has proposed new rules aiming to increase the protection of workers temporarily posted abroad.

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