EC

2012 European Commission Work Programme: what priorities for the Commission in 2012?

The European Commission has unveiled its 2012 Work Programme “Delivering European renewal”. The overarching priority is to foster a sustainable and job-rich economic recovery and to address the financial crisis. Clinical trials, medical devices, tobacco products, long term care, or child poverty are on the agenda. In the general policy areas, the Commission announced that it will continue to mainstream the use of impact assessment as a standard part of the Commission’s (...)

2010 EU Citizenship Report highlights bottlenecks in eHealth and Cross-border Healthcare

The Commission adopted the "EU Citizenship Report 2010: Dismantling the obstacles to EU citizens’ rights" . The report outlines concrete measures the Commission is taking to ensure that European citizens are able to exercise their rights to the full. The report is a follow up to the ’EU Citizens’ Rights – The way forward’ consultation, launched in June 2010. The consultation aimed to indentify how the rights stemming from Union Citizenship could be (...)

European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 – removing barriers for 80 million Europeans

On 15 November 2010 the European Commission adopted a new ten-year strategy to remove the barriers which prevent 80 million persons with disabilities in Europe from participating in society. Health is an action area for the strategy and participation with civil society will be strengthened over the next ten years. The strategy outlines how the EU and national governments can empower people with disabilities so that they can enjoy their full rights. People with disabilities often experience (...)

Europe 2020 Integrated Guidelines

**Update October 2010 ** Council adopts guidelines for the member states’ employment policies and Council conclusions on the Governance of the European Employment Strategy. In March 2010, the European Council issued its Conclusions on the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy. On that basis, the European Commission drafted the economic policy and employement guidelines that Member States will have to follow when drawing and implementing National Reform Programmes. The (...)

Barroso delivers first ’State of the Union’ address

At the September plenary in Strasbourg, President of the European Commission Jose-Manuel Barroso made his first ’’State of the Union’’ address before the European Parliament. Last year, when Barroso was re-elected it was agreed that the Commission and Parliament were to convene once a year to discuss the state of the Union. In his speech, Barroso charted their work for the next 12 months. The first issue he touched on was the economic crisis. The recovery has (...)

New ’’EU News’’ website managed by DG Communication

A new ’’EU News’’ website has been created by the European Commission, informing users of relevant policy developments in English, German and French. The European Commission recently launched its "EU News" website, available at http://europa.eu/news/. This new website is part of Europa – the official portal of the EU - and managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication. The site gathers all the latest news from the EU (...)