Brussels, 28 February 2012 - European standards organisations are actively contributing to the debate on the proposal for a future EU programme on research and innovation, Horizon 2020. They are engaging in dialogue with the EU institutions in order to highlight how standardization provides a bridge between research, innovation and the market, thereby strengthening competitiveness and boosting growth and jobs.

On a visit to Washington, the Presidency of the Liberal and Democrat Group in the European Parliament met with US Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Trade Sub-Committee, to discuss the controversial intellectual property agreement ACTA. During the meeting, the Senator discussed his efforts to establish whether ACTA will be a binding international agreement in the United States or not.

Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader in the European Parliament, said:

Brussels, 27 February 2012 - Caritas organisations in Eastern and South Eastern Europe have started immediately relief operations to address the suffering of populations in their countries.

One particular example is that Caritas organizations from seven countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia) have joined forces with Caritas Europa in developing a single consolidated project proposal for their response activities.

Brussels, 27 February 2012
The FIA, representing among its membership 8 million motorcyclists, is disappointed that the European Parliament cost-benefit analysis on the Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) for motorcycles uses an inflated price for ABS, based solely on manufacturers’ figures, leading to a flawed analysis. The report will be presented to the IMCO committee tomorrow (28 February 2012).

Ahead of the vote on the Energy Efficiency Directive on February 28th, COGEN Europe calls on the ITRE Committee to deliver a clearly strengthened energy efficiency and CHP policy for Europe