The European Commission is moving to make it easier for citizens to transfer vehicle registration from one member state to another. The goal is to do away with long waiting times, the double payment of registration tax and the need for multiple road-worthiness tests. This is part of a push to strengthen the Single Market. Although there is freedom of movement for citizens and goods within the EU, a recent survey found that the administrative burden of re-registering vehicles in another member state remains a major issue for European citizens, workers and car-rental companies.
Read more...
The European Commission has decided to raise – to EUR 500,000 disbursed over a three-year period – the level of state aid to a company below which prior EU approval is not required. The previous ceiling was EUR 200,000.
The Commission has presented revised rules on State aid granted to companies providing services of general economic interest (SGEI). After a consultation process on the revision of the former SGEI rules from 2006, the new Regulation aims at simplifying and reducing administrative burdens for the grant of public services compensations for small SGEI and, particularly, increases to EUR 500 000 the ceiling below which de minimis aid can be granted.
Read more...
The European Commission has presented a Report on the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights with the purpose is to better inform citizens on the application of the Charter and to highlight major developments in 2011.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights entered into force, together with the Lisbon Treaty, in December 2009. The Report follows Commission commitment to prepare annual reports on the application of the Chart. It focuses at actions taken by EU institutions to promote the implementation of the Charter and most important developments in 2011.
Read more...
Internet industry players are being asked to self-regulate to create a safer online environment for children. Hotlines for reporting illegal or abusive content; standards for classification of content, promotion of child-appropriate content and awareness-raising initiatives are among the ideas put forward. Targeted in particular are of course pornography, violence, and bullying.
No deadlines or specific requirements are being imposed – the European Commission has essentially presented a wish-list to industry, with vague and unspecific hints that top-down regulation may come at some point in the future if self-regulation doesn’t work.
Read more...
Delegates from 30 countries representing more than 2000 European women’s organisations are due to meet this weekend in Budapest for the Annual Conference and General Assembly of the European Women’s Lobby. Budapest was selected to host this year’s meeting in a sign of solidarity with the women of Hungary who are confronted with extremely adverse circumstances in their struggle for equal rights
Read more...
Following a successful vote of no-confidence against the cabinet headed by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, Victor Ponta, leader of the Romanian Social-Democrats, was nominated by the president of country for the premier’s post.
Read more...
After long days of negotiations a compromise has been reached. All sides have agreed that OSCE will organize Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections in Kosovo.
The agreement reached on Monday was welcomed by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo as well as by the Secretary General, Lamberto Zannier.
Read more...
The Russian government has extended, for the 12th time, the investigation into the death in jail of whistle-blowing lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. The previous deadline, which expired today has now been extended to 24 July 2012: this, despite no new suspects being identified and no new charges brought. The investigation remains under the control of the same Russian officials who are conflicted and compromised by their known roles in Magnitsky’s persecution and the concealment of the corruption he had uncovered. The Russian government claims that the death of Magnitsky, a healthy 37-year old prior to his detention, where he was kept for 358 days without trial in inhumane conditions, was “an inevitable event for which no one was to blame”.
Read more...
‘Europe is moving towards the reduction of a nuclear energy and gas demand will only increase, - says Chairman of Energy Committee of State Russian Duma Ivan Grachev. – Raising of living standards of Europeans will automatically translate into higher energy demand and windmills and sunbeams can’t be the basis for industrial production, moreover at the moment they are heavily subsidized’. This week EU-Russia Energy (Gas) debate took place on 26-27 of April at the European Parliament and at the 7th Conference that moved from Berlin to Brussels as a sign of acknowledgment of the role of the political capital in assembling the European gas market. The debate shifted from politics to economy and further to technical details about using cosmic systems to secure the gas infrastructure. ‘The investments in South Stream should get higher priority – suggested the President of Russian Gas Society, Duma deputy Valery Yazev, being convinced that it will contribute to the plan of the diversification of the routs of gas to the EU and resolve existing tensions about security of supply. Further is considers that Nabucco became illusory after the Turkmen’s decision of gas sales to China; he doesn’t see any viable alternative to it.
Read more...
Although the United Kingdom is not in the Eurozone, the City of London is Europe’s most important financial centre and obsessively follows the currency’s fortunes. Britain’s leading free market think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, has been asking if the Eurozone crisis is moving towards its end game. In April it brought together many in the City to debate the possible outcomes. Not just whether the Euro –or at least the Eurozone in its present form- can survive but whether it actually will survive and perhaps most importantly whether it should survive.
Read more...
Concerns of a Greek exit from the euro left many benchmarks at multi-month troughs...
Read more...
Figures released for the first quarter of this year showed that Evans, pictured, attracted 9.23million weekly listeners – his second-highest result since he replaced Sir Terry Wogan in 2010....
Read more...
Blue Peter will be moved off the flagship channel after more than 50 years along with other shows which will be broadcast on dedicated children’s digital channels CBeebies and CBBC....
Read more...
Becky Edwards from Cannock, Staffordshire, was so humiliated by her mishap that it forced her to change her unhealthy lifestyle - and lose more than half her body weight....
Read more...
A widower, 83, has joined the ranks of less than 100 'altruistic donors' in the UK who have donated an organ to a stranger while alive - and is now the oldest (File pic)....
Read more...
Part-nationalised lender’s shares placed ‘under auction’ by regulator after it loses more than a quarter of its market value in Madrid...
Read more...
Part-nationalised lender’s shares placed ‘under auction’ by regulator after it loses more than a quarter of its market value in Madrid...
Read more...
UK is ‘moving in the right direction’, says PM, insisting he will not “blow the budget on more spending” to try to stimulate the economy...
Read more...
War crimes trial of ex-Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic suspended indefinitely over a dispute about the prosecution's failure to disclose some evidence....
Read more...
Part-nationalised lender loses more than a quarter of its market value in Madrid...
Read more...
Becky Edwards from Cannock, Staffordshire, was so humiliated by her mishap that it forced her to change her unhealthy lifestyle - and lose more than half her body weight....
Read more...
Alex Cooper, 17, from Kent, is in remission after two years of chemotherapy to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia after she spotting early warning signs of the disease watching My Sister's Keeper....
Read more...
Rebecca Blake, 29, pictured, from Croydon, south London, and Conor McRedmond are accused of having sex outside marriage and being drunk in a public place....
Read more...
Sentiment boosted by Japan’s stronger than expected GDP data as concerns of a Greek exit from the euro left many benchmarks at multi-month troughs...
Read more...
Sentiment is boosted by Japan’s stronger-than-expected GDP data as concerns of a Greek exit from the euro left many benchmarks at multi-month troughs...
Read more...
Japanese ecommerce group leads $100m investment round in the social scrapbooking site that has been rapidly gaining users in the US...
Read more...
Japanese ecommerce group leads $100m investment round in the social scrapbooking site that has been rapidly gaining users in the US...
Read more...
The beautiful limestone Bimmah sinkhole in Oman boasts the kind of clear waters and towering cliffs normally seen on holiday postcards....
Read more...
Insurer begins search for a new chief executive and promises disposals as part of a wide-ranging business review...
Read more...
Sam Hallam, 24, (pictured) from Hoxton, east London, was just 18 when he was jailed for stabbing to death ‘Good Samaritan’ Essayas Kassahun as he tried to rescue a friend from a gang of thugs....
Read more...