Brussels, 3 October 2011 - ‘Norma’, ‘standardite’, ‘normas’, ‘norem’, ‘προτύπων’, ‘standarder’: standards affect enterprises and consumers all over Europe. This is especially true for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), as they account for over 98% of all European enterprises, employing almost 81 million people, providing 66% of Europe’s total employment. Furthermore, SMEs are present in most sectors.

The European Commission today presented proposals to account for the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from oil from tar sands (1), which would effectively rule out imports of this environmentally-damaging fuel source. The Greens welcomed the proposals and called on EU governments to swiftly adopt them, with Green MEP Satu Hassi stating:

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The European Parliament environment committee today voted on a proposal to revise EU rules on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (1). The Greens welcome the moves to increase the scope and collection targets and to tighten important loopholes with regard to shipments to non-OECD countries. After the vote, Green MEP Michail Tremopoulos said:

 Still missing: All operators must meet WEEE recycling target if recycling rates are to improve. Article 11.1 must be tightened up
 Improvements: collection rate based on WEEE generated; a harmonized approach to registering and reporting e-waste