Maternity leave for women entrepreneurs
The recently approved Directive 2010/41/EU on self-employed workers and assisting spouses entered into force on 4 August. For the first time, it grants a minimum 14-weeks long maternity leave and allowance to self-employed workers and a right to social security and pension to the assisting spouses or life partners (as recognised in national law).
In a European work environment where 16% of the active population is self-employed and where only 30% thereof are female entrepreneurs, it was more than time to improve the working rights of self-employed women to encourage entrepreneurship.
EU member states have two years to implement the Directive into national ...
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2011-2020 EU road safety action plan launched
On 20 July, the Commission published plans to reduce the number of road deaths on Europe's roads by half in the next 10 years. Initiatives proposed in a set of European Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020 range from setting higher standards for vehicle safety, to improving the training of road users, and increasing the enforcement of road rules. The Commission will work closely with Member States to implement this programme.
Europeans are calling on Member States to boost their efforts to improve road safety, according to the latest Eurostat survey. Nine out of ten Europeans (94%) considered driving under the influence of alcohol to be the most significant road safety problem, while eight out of ten (78%) called speeding a ...
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The Brussels Connection is being revamped
Dear Friends and Colleagues, You may have noticed how some article categories are being moved around and how articles change places.
We are currently rethinking the organisation of our content and trying to make The Brussels Connection more practical and easier to use.
In advance, we apologize for the inconvenience our modifications may cause and thank you warmly for your understanding.
We will resume sending our Monday morning news ...
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We are now 501 million!
Since 1 January 2010, Eurostat says that the total population of the EU 27 has reached 501.1 million, compared to the 499.7 million we were in January 2009.
This is due to the birth of 5.4 million children in 2009 and a net migration of 0.9 million people. The highest birth rates were registered in Ireland (16.8%), the UK (12.8%), France (12.7%), Cyprus (12.2%) and Sweden with (12%). ...
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Formal EU accession negotiations with Iceland begin
The General Affairs Council decided on Monday 26 July to officially start EU accession negotiations with Iceland. This should take around a year and allow Iceland to formally join in 2012.
Iceland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), together with Liechtenstein and Norway, and has therefore already integrated a good part of EU principles and law. Brussels’ officials believe that the 35 chapters of the accession framework will not pose major problems. Some difficulties might however arise ...
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No more fooling Eurostat with fluffy financial data
Following this year’s most unpleasant (and costly) discovery of the true financial situation in which Greece found itself, member states decided to put an end to the lack of financial disclosure by increasing the powers of Eurostat in verifying whether data submitted by a member state is reliable, complete and consistent, in the case of excessive deficits.
The General Affairs Council therefore adopted on 26 July a Regulation strengthening the rules concerning statistical data used under the EU’s excessive deficit procedure. This Regulation updates Regulation 479/2009. ...
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Prof. Stiglitz warns against inappropriate spending cuts by nations
Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz lambasts the financial sector and warns world governments wishing to reduce their deficits not to do so indiscriminately.
In a very interesting article published on the Project Syndicate website dated 8 July 2010 (link below), Professor Stiglitz finds that Keynes’ theory has been proven right insofar the financial sector has “brought the world to the brink of ruin”. The lack of regulation of the sector inherent in ...
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What has the EU done for you in 2009?
Europeans are most often not aware that the European Union works hard to improve all sorts of aspects of their daily lives. Therefore, the Commission has created a page listing the three main issues it has addressed in 2009.
Firstly, the EU has worked hard to limit the damages of the financial crisis, which started in the US with the collapse of a slightly corrupt and unsupervised banking system.
Secondly, the EU has carried out a major online shopping survey, to assess the extent of misleading commercial practices, ...
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Memorial wins Sakharov Prize 2009
The European Parliament's 2009 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded to Russian civil rights defence organization Memorial, and their three representatives Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, as well as all other human rights defenders in Russia.
EP President Jerzy Buzek said: "By awarding this year's prize to Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva on behalf of Memorial and all other human rights defenders in Russia, we hope to contribute to ending the circle of fear and violence surrounding human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, ...
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PACE turns 60
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) charged with the dual mission of strengthening democracy in Europe and upholding its citizen’s fundamental rights celebrated its 60th birthday on 10 August.
Sixty years ago, 100 members of parliament from twelve European countries – including some of the great founding fathers of the European movement – gathered in the main lecture theatre of the University of Strasbourg for the first ever meeting of the “Consultative Assembly” (soon to become the Parliamentary Assembly) ...
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500 million EU citizens
The population of the EU27 grew by 2.1 million in 2008 to reach 488.8 million on 1 January 2009. During this year growing at an annual rate of +0.4%, it is set to cross the 500 million mark.
These figures come from a report a published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on demography in the EU27 Member States, EU Candidate, EFTA and other European countries.
The highest increases were recorded in Lithuania (10.4‰ in 2008 compared with 9.6‰ in 2007), Ireland (16.9‰ compared ...
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Stirrings in the newly elected European Parliament, Part II
During the previous week, the newly elected European Parliament seems to have reached an agreement on the Parliament president issue, and has also made some progress in the distribution of the EP committee president positions.
As liberal ALDE candidate Graham Watson withdrew his candidacy, he gained leverage to help ALDE win the important chair of the economic and monetary affairs committee, as well as the chair of a temporary special committee to deal with the economic crisis. The special committee with be chaired by German ...
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Top jobs at the EU
After a very vocal public campaign to secure the EP’s top job the former leader of the ALDE group Graham Watson has withdrawn his candidacy. Mr. Watson’s decision has effectively confirmed ex-Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek as the EP’s next president. This is in keeping with a time honoured power sharing agreement between the centre-right EPP and the socialist group under which the EP presidency is shared equally by the groups during the 5 year parliamentary term.
Mr. Buzek should be elected as president at the first plenary session of the EP’s 7th term in Strasbourg on 14 June. The only other candidate vying to the job is the European United Left-Nordic Green Left’s Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson. In the second half of the Parliamentary term a ...
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German Constitutional Court says “Yes, but ...” to Lisbon
The highest German court has approved the Lisbon Treaty, ruling that it is compatible with German Law, on the condition that the role of the national parliament in EU decision-making is strengthened.
Germany's national parliament had already voted overwhelmingly in favour of the treaty last year, but the final step of ratification, the signature by President Horst Koehler, had not been taken due to the court challenge. The ruling now suspends the ratification process of the treaty until the new provisions requested ...
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What Europe does for your cell phone
In the last couple of days, roaming charges (charges for placing phone calls using your mobile phone from another country) were reduced considerably to an equal level throughout all EU member states. On top of that, the 10 leading cell phone manufacturing companies agreed to the production on a harmonized cell phone charger for all brands, for users across Europe.
The agreement on lowered roaming charges was agreed back in April, but entered into force on 1 July. The regulation does not fix roaming prices at rates set by the EU, but sets ceilings beneath which mobile operators can compete by offering lower prices. From 1 July, 2009 consumers will ...
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Sweden in charge
Sweden took over the presidency of the EU from the Czech Republic today. The European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and 25 EU Commissioners were present at the City Hall in Stockholm to discuss the agenda of the presidency during the next six months.
“The Presidency slogan is 'taking on the challenge'. It could not be more appropriate. Those wanting a long summer on the beach or a very quiet autumn will be disappointed. There will indeed be a lot to do during the six months of the Swedish Presidency," said President Barroso at ...
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The return of the curvy cucumber
Common sense has prevailed. The curvy cucumber, often seen as the most popular symbol of Brussels’ disconnect with the average European is back. EU rules governing the size and shape of many fruit and vegetables cease to exist from 1 July.
"July 1st marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "More seriously, this is a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape. We don't need to regulate this sort of ...
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The Iron Curtain
Even though the Berlin Wall only fell in November 1989, 27 June 1989 marks the day of the first breach in the Iron Curtain, which divided Communist Central and Eastern Europe from the West for over decades. That day, just outside the Hungarian town of Sopron, Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock joined his Hungarian counterpart Gyula Horn in cutting the fence. It led to a stream of people heading west and climaxed in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November that year.
It is quite ironical to notice that the physical barrier that divided Europe was originally installed to stop the tide of people fleeing Soviet rule in the East. An estimated 15 million people headed west in the five years after 1945, creating for the first time the possibility to dream ...
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Stirrings in the newly elected European Parliament
It’s been three weeks since the people of the European Union cast their votes to re-elect a new European Parliament for a period of 5 years. It is safe to say that these three weeks have already caused quite some movement in the EU legislative body.
The first hot issue currently on the agenda is the election of the ‘new’ EU Commission President. Top candidate for reassuming his current position is Portuguese Jose Manuel Barroso. While Mr. Barroso has obtained the unanimous backing of the Members States’ Heads of State and Government, he has far from ...
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LUX cinema prize 2009
Keeping in line with its motto, ‘Unity in Diversity’ every year the European parliament awards the LUX Prize for cinema. Films which show the process of building Europe in a different light are shortlisted and a jury comprising of all the Members of the EP select the final winner. The prize is also awarded as a way of promoting European cinema and breaking cultural barriers within the EU.
This year ten films have been shortlisted for the LUX prize, the winner will be announced on 25 November. The Parliament will then pay for the leading film to be subtitled in all 23 official languages of the EU and also help in its distribution by DVD. The ten shortlisted ...
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