Latest News

The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Regulation banning the trading of seal products within, into, and from the European Union. This is to ensure that products derived from seals killed and skinned in ways that causes pain, distress and suffering are not found on the European market.

On the 16th of July the European Commission proposed a package of actions and proposals to improve the environmental performance of products and stimulating the demand for more sustainable goods and production technologies.

The European Commission has adopted a Regulation, which will allow EU Member States to grant aid for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and a range of other activities such as research, innovation and training, without first having to notify the Commission.

On the 8th of July 2008 the European Commission welcomed the final decision by the ECOFIN Council allowing Slovakia to adopt the euro as from 1 January 2009. Based on the Commission proposal, the Council also decided that the Slovak koruna will be replaced by the euro at a rate of 30.1260 SKK to the euro.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to change the VAT Directive 2006/112/EC so as to provide Member States with the ability to apply reduced VAT rates for some specific services on a permanent basis.

EU Member States have endorsed the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation to reduce standby energy consumption of household and office products. The draft Regulation lays down energy efficiency requirements for all products sold in Europe, thus cutting the EU’s standby electricity consumption by almost 75% by 2020.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to the European Council and Parliament to adopt a directive which provides for protection from discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief beyond the workplace.

The European Council has adopted a legislative package aimed at facilitating free movement of goods within the internal market. It aims to bring particular benefits for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by removing remaining barriers to trade, enhancing competitiveness and safety for consumers.

The European Commission has welcomed the entry into force of the Interim Agreement (IA) with Bosnia and Herzegovina creating a free trade area which will further open the market to bilateral trade.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), companies of 250 employees or less, have a significant impact on Europe’s marketplace as they provide most jobs within the EU. Despite SMEs playing a major role for the future economic development, they very often face enormous bureaucratic hurdles and obstacles.

Nanotechnologies have enormous potential benefits for manufacturers, consumers, employees, patients and the environment. They will bring more energy and resource efficient processes, improve computer memories and processors and could usher in a new age of customized pharmaceuticals and medical procedures.

The European Parliament has approved, in a second reading, the agreement reached with the Council on the revision of the proposed Waste Framework Directive. The new Directive would replace three existing Directives: the existing Waste Framework Directive; the Hazardous Waste Directive; the Waste Oils Directive.

Every year 5,720 people die in the European Union (EU) as a result of work-related accidents, according to EUROSTAT (the Statistical Office of the European Communities). In addition 159,500 workers in the EU die every year from occupational diseases as estimated by the International Labour Organisation.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal which aims to provide clearer rules for animal by-products.  Thousands of slaughterhouses, farms and dairy plants across the EU produce more than 15 million tonnes of animal by-products every year.  The proposed rules would cover the wide range of sectors producing animal by-products and would provide for their collection, use and disposal.  The current rules on animal by-products were introduced in 2003.  The new proposal aims to update the current legislation and improve the coherence between other Community legislation and health rules for animal by-products.  For example, the proposal clarifies when and how environmental legislation would apply to operations involving animal by-products.  For instance, if the application of manure to land as fertiliser affects soil and groundwater, environmental legislation would apply.  The proposal also introduces the concept of an ‘end-point’ in the management of animal by-products after which processed products are no longer subject to animal by-products rules, as potential risks have been eliminated.  Instead, the general rules on product safety would apply.

The European Commission has welcomed the recent agreement of the Member States on amendments to the Working Time Directive, and on a proposal for a Temporary Agency Workers Directive.

From 2 June 2008 the EU Gateway Programme will provide support to EU companies willing to do business in Japan and Korea and will be offering then the possibility to participate in one-week events in these target markets.

This business cooperation initiative builds upon the experience of the Gateway to Japan Campaign which has helped about 2.500 European companies to find business partners in Japan over the last 14 years. According to the European Commission, the format of this New Gateway Programme has been improved to better accommodate companies in the technology and design related sectors.

The initiative will cover a wide range of areas such as providing assistance to businesses during and after each event, helping during individual meetings with potential Japanese and Korean business partners but also offering guidance regarding market entry issues such as approval procedures and product adaptation.
30 missions to Japan and 15 to Korea are planned to be organised in the coming 6 years designed for various economic sectors and accommodating up to 40 EU companies for Japan and 30 EU companies for Korea.

Further information on the New Gateway Programme is available on the following link:
http://www.eu-gateway.eu/go.php?nID=22&page=Home

From the 1st of June, the European Commission adopted a new regulation on test methods for chemicals, which aims to set standards for testing whether certain substances are hazardous to human health and the environment. By implementing the new REACH regulation, the Commission is wanting to replace the testing of chemicals on vertebrate animals with alternative tests methods. According to the Commission substitute test methods will be integrated as soon as they become available. 

The European Commission has launched a new online database of the ingredients used in cosmetic products which aims to make it easier for companies to find up-to-date information on substances needed to develop new cosmetics or to improve existing ones.  The new database, called ‘CosIng’ (COSmetics INGredients), replaces the old pdf format list.  Using CosIng, businesses can now check if and how a substance is regulated at EU level, from when and how it has been regulated through the years and what are the opinions of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) which form the basis of this legislation.  Companies should no longer have to search through various documents to get the full picture.  The EU Cosmetics Directive requires that any substance used in cosmetic products needs to be listed under an international nomenclature for ingredients.  The new CosIng database contains information on more than 15,000 ingredients, including chemical names and the international names which must be labelled on cosmetic products.  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/cosmetics/cosing/

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to replace the current Construction Products Directive with a new Regulation aiming to remove remaining regulatory and technical obstacles to the free circulation of construction products in Europe.  Construction products include more than 40 ranges of products such as doors, thermal insulating products, cement, roofing products and bricks.  The proposal is intending to create a common technical language for manufacturers, mainly harmonised standards and European Technical Assessments, that would replace corresponding national technical specifications.  The aim is to allow users (architects, builders etc) to find it easier to obtain information about the performance of the products they intend to use by increasing the credibility of standards and introducing new and stricter criteria for notified bodies and strengthening market surveillance.  The proposal also seeks to introduce clarification of procedures leading to CE marking and in some cases the procedures leading to CE marking will be simplified in order to reduce costs for manufacturers, in particular for micro-enterprises (less than 10 staff) and for individual products, when significant safety concerns are not implied.  Further details are available from:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/construction/cpdrevision/cpd_revision_intro_en.htm 

The EU’s Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) is calling for proposals under the ‘Eco-Innovation pilot and market replications project’, which aims to support eco-innovation techniques and initiatives within the EU.

Part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, this call for proposals will cover eco- innovative process or product areas such as material recycling, buildings, food and drink and greening business/smart purchasing.

Further information on the call and guidance to proposers on how to submit projects is available on the following link: EACI call for proposal.  The closing date to submit a bid is Thursday 11 September 2008 (17.00 hours, Brussels local time).

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki has announced its fees and charges applicable under the registration procedures for the new REACH legislation (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals).  The ECHA is the body responsible for managing the registration process.  The registration of chemical substances will commence on 1st June 2008.  The level of fees for registration varies according to the tonnage range.  The basic registration fee will range from €1600 (approximately £1,279) for substances produced in volumes below ten tonnes, to €31000 (approximately £24, 784) for those above 1000 tonnes.  In order to keep the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to a minimum, a 60% reduction for registrations has been applied to small sized companies.  There will also be up to 90% discounts for micro enterprises and a 25% reduction for firms that cooperate together on registrations.

See also

During the past 2 years, businesses, NGOs and EU residents have secured over 2.8 million European internet identities, making .eu the fourth most popular Top Level Domain in Europe and the ninth worldwide and competing with long established identities such as .com, .net or .org.

Registrations for .eu domains have been continuously growing since the first boom year and subscriptions for 80% of domain names have been renewed for their second year.  Germany leads the way, accounting for almost one third of all registrations, with the UK in third place.  It is not only large and well-known organizations such as Versace and Bridgestone who have registered .eu names, but also small and medium sized companies and private individuals.

According to the European Commission, by promoting an online distinctive European identity, .eu helps citizens and businesses to take advantage of the single market and the freedoms that this provides.  To see a detailed breakdown of the registrations, see .eu statistics