European Business Leaders Call for a Simplified Patent Process to Drive Innovation Europe’s 500, the association of the European top growth companies, calls upon the European Commission and the Member States to introduce a simplified central patent application process for the EU. At present, inventors in Europe are required to complete 27 separate registration processes in many languages across the EU27 and the cost of obtaining approval for a single patent can be as high as €150,000.

The EU Committee of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) has just submitted to the European institutions its priority areas for developing a European policy on sustainable urban mobility.

Last September the European Commission published a Green paper on urban transport, ‘Towards a new culture for urban mobility’, thereby marking the start of a consultation phase which will result in an Action Plan on urban mobility. UITP’s recent position came in response to this consultation.

The priorities of UITP’s EU Committee are:

High speed broadband networks at the centre of ETNO meetings with US authorities and industry

Washington DC – A delegation of leading European telecoms operators, chaired by Michael Bartholomew, ETNO Director, is meeting with US senior officials and industry representatives this week, to discuss high speed broadband deployment.

Grasping the challenge of changing this gloomy perspective, members of the e-Skills Industry Leadership Board today committed in discussion with VP Verheugen of the European Commission to concrete Priority Actions focused on competitiveness and inclusion. Taking up on the recommendations of the competitiveness Council in November 2007, the e-Skills ILB announced that industry will work closely with key stakeholders like the European Schoolnet, and support the pilot phase of the “European e-Skills Career Portal”. Together with the e-Competence Framework

Brussels 21 February 2008:
The European Parliament has today endorsed the next step to improve the functioning of the internal market of goods, much to the delight of Orgalime, the European engineering industries association. The decision on the package* is very positive for industry and has potential to serve as a clear and transparent basis for product regulation of the future.