The proposal of the European Commission to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) unfortunately left the problem of the European protein deficit totally unaddressed. Wervel therefore took the initiative to remind the European Parliament (EP) of their resolution of February 2011 in which they raised the problem. Together with a symbolic bag of local peas, a letter was handed over to the members and chairman of the agriculture committee in the EP.

“The members of CEEP are still looking for a good reason why such a detailed and complex legislative initiative on concessions was published”, said today Rainer Plassmann, chair of CEEP SGI committee intervening at the EP Hearing on the award of concessions contracts. “However, they decided to work very closely with Members of the European Parliament to ensure that legislation will finally best respond to the needs of public services providers, which means at the end the needs of citizens”.

Three years after its inauguration -Eastern Partnership, the initiative of Poland and Sweden,  seems to have arrived to a breaking point. On the one hand, the attention of the European Union is focused on the debt crisis in the euro-zone and the foreign policy is concentrated on the revolutionary transformations in North Africa. On the other hand, the experiences from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, where civil societies and democratic forces are still forming after the collapse of dictatorships, showed that the EU must support democratic values.

Brussels, Monday 19 March 2012:  European e-Skills Week 2012– backed by the European Commission launches today in Brussels. 

Vice President of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and Industry, Antonio Tajani, is officially marking the start of the European e-Skills Week 2012, by welcoming,  together with conference host, Anna Maria Darmanin, Vice-President of the European Economic and Social Committee,  more than 200 delegates from thirty member states.