EU waters are not doing well in terms of quality, despite improvements in recent years. Water quantity is of equal concern with water scarcity spreading in Europe and extreme events (like floods) increasing in too many Member States.

We must step up our efforts in order to deal with old and emerging challenges, including water pollution, water abstraction for agriculture and energy production, land use and the impacts of climate change. Strengthened measures are needed to help the EU protect its water resources and become more resource (including water) efficient.

That's why the Commission has launched a Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources, a strategy for ensuring that enough good quality water is available to meet the needs of people, the economy and the environment.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "This Blueprint shows we have a good understanding of the problems we face and a solid platform to tackle them. The time has come to take action to deliver the full benefits of our legislation and create opportunities for innovative solutions in water policy and the water industry. What is needed is a sustainable balance between water demand and supply, taking into account the needs of both people and the natural ecosystems they depend on."

Currently only 9 EU Member States (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and UK) do not have regulated retail energy prices in place. In Ireland, as in the other 17 EU countries, the prices are set by state intervention which does not provide consumers with the best deal. Only an efficient, interconnected and transparent European internal energy market will offer citizens and businesses secure and sustainable energy supplies at the lowest possible cost.

In a Communication published today (Thursday) on how to make the internal energy market work, the Commission calls on Member States to step up their efforts to transpose and implement the existing EU internal energy market rules. The Commission will work with Member States to empower consumers and to reduce state interventions which distort markets.

While progress has already been made in terms of offering more choice for consumers, keeping wholesale energy prices in check and securing sufficient supplies at all times, more needs to be done to exploit the full potential of a truly integrated European market. To complete the EU internal energy market by 2014 the Commission foresees several actions.

Friday, 9 November saw TalkToEU.ie conduct their #TWEETSINSPACE experiment. The experiment was part of a campaign to highlight the significant funding currently available to Irish scientists through EU programmes. All this experiment involved was a balloon, some Junior Cert Physics and the tweets from Irish people.

Testing the limits of the Irish scientist Robert Boyle's world famous law, #TWEETSINSPACE saw the launch of a weather balloon from Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, Ireland to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere. The balloon, with Boyle’s face printed on it, was filmed as it expanded until it eventually burst, as Boyle's Law predicts. The experiment also displayed a number of tweets from the public when it reached the edge of space via a screen attached to the balloon, making them the highest tweets ever sent in Ireland.

The balloon reached an altitude of 34,000m before it burst, and then parachuted safely to land in Kilfeacle Co.Tipperary. The balloon travelled 180km in total.

There were two Irish entries among the winners of a competition to promote active ageing announced by EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner László Andor, earlier this week.

The competition, organised as part of the European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, comprised seven categories: Social Entrepreneurs, Workplaces for all Ages, Towards Age-Friendly Environments, generations@school, Life Story Challenge as well as written and audiovisual journalism. Over 1300 submissions were received.

The two Irish prize winners were: the "Living Scenes" project by Millstreet Community School in Cork, which took second prize in the generations@school category, and “Age and the City” – A Four-Part Radio Series for RTÉ Radio 1, which took third place in the audio-visual journalism category.

The Millstreet Community School project, entitled "Living Scenes", involved retired adults and teenagers brainstorming together to come up with creative multi-media projects aimed at bridging the gap between young and old. This year, the Living Scenes group created an intergenerational rap song; compiled a book titled Two Generations, One Road; and used clay, wood, tiles, glass, and metal to create a permanent display about crossing the generation gap.

“Age and the City” – A Four-Part Radio Series for RTÉ Radio 1 (Doireann Ní Bhriain, RTÉ) brought the subject of ageing in the city to life through a mix of personal stories told by older people, with analysis and discussion of the issues facing our ageing society. Besides being highly entertaining for all ages, the stories addressed how our cities will meet the needs of older citizens.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD, warmly welcomed the start of construction of eight schools which are being delivered under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. These are the first public sector projects to be funded under the PPP model since June 2010.

These schools in counties Westmeath, Leitrim, Limerick, Galway, Donegal, Wexford and Waterford are the third bundle of schools to be built under the Department of Education and Skills school PPP programme.  They are part of the five year school building programme already announced by Minister Ruairí Quinn T.D. earlier this year.

A loan of €50 million has been secured through the European Investment Bank (EIB) which has meant these new schools can now proceed to construction.  The total value of the construction costs is estimated to be approximately €100 million.

A new European law to improve rights for an estimated 75 million crime victims across the European Union each year was published in the Official Journal – the EU's statute book – yesterday (Wednesday). The directive on victims' rights was adopted on 4 October by the Council of Ministers, after the European Parliament endorsed it with an overwhelming majority on 12 September. The directive sets out minimum rights for victims, wherever they are in the EU. Member States now have three years to implement the provisions into their national laws.

The new EU Directive on minimum standards for victims will ensure that, in all 27 EU countries:

• victims are treated with respect and police, prosecutors and judges are trained to properly deal with them;
• victims get information on their rights and their case in a way they understand;
• victim support exists in every Member State;
• victims can participate in proceedings if they want and are helped to attend the trial;
• vulnerable victims are identified – such as children, victims of rape, or those with disabilities – and are properly protected;
• victims are protected while police investigate the crime and during court proceedings.

The European Commission has formally accepted the Nobel Peace prize money on behalf of the European Union and indicated that it intends to allocate the prize money to children affected by war and conflicts across the world. The Nobel Peace Prize consists of an amount of SEK 8 million (approximate €930,000), a medal and a diploma. The medal and the diploma will be kept by the European Union institutions on behalf of the European Union. The money will be allocated to the "EU Nobel Prize Children's Projects".

In the coming weeks, the Commission will decide on the details of the projects, including the precise terms of reference, beneficiaries' selection process and legal and budgetary aspects.

A group of researchers from the 14 Irish Institutes of Technology visited Brussels on 13 & 14 November to learn more about EU funding possibilities for Irish researchers.  During the two day visit they met with the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science - Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as well with Mr. Wolfgang Burtcher, Deputy Director General of DG Research and Innovation. 

During the visit, the group were briefed on the various funding mechanisms available to researchers including those under FP7 and the future Horizon 2020 – the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation which will run from 2014 to 2020.  The researchers also visited the European Parliament where they met with the following Irish MEPs: Liam Aylward, Emer Costello, Marian Harkin, Sean Kelly, Phil Prendergast and Gay Mitchell and received an overview of how the EP works generally and, more specifically, how it is involved in the decision-making process with regard to the proposed budget of €80 billion for Horizon 2020 which is currently on going.

Forner Irish rugby captain Mick Galwey is one of more than 100 European personalities from the worlds of education, art, literature, economics, philosophy and sport who have signed an open letter to EU Heads of State and Government in support of the threatened Erasmus student exchange programme. In Ireland the letter was also signed by Gerry McLoughlin, mayor of Limerick and former rugby international, Noelle O’Connell, executive director of the European Movement Ireland and Jessica Gough, Erasmus ambassador at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

The signatories come from every Member State of the EU and include the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, the president of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell, Nobel Prize winner Professor Christopher Pissarides and several Olympic champions. They are responding to concerns that student places on the scheme, as well as grants, may have to be severely reduced due to wrangling over the 2012 and 2013 EU budgets.

According to figures released yesterday by Eurostat, Ireland recorded the largest monthly and annual decreases in industrial production in the EU.

In September 2012 compared with August 2012, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 2.5% in the euro area and by 2.3% in the EU27. Among the Member States for which data are available, industrial production fell in seventeen and rose in six. The largest decreases were registered in Ireland (-12.8%), Portugal (-8.8%), Greece (-7.5%), Spain (-7.0%) and Italy (-4.8%), and the highest increases in Slovakia (+13.0%), Estonia (+8.3%) and Lithuania (+8.0%).

In September 2012 compared with September 2011, industrial production dropped by 2.3% in the euro area and by 2.7% in the EU27. Among the Member States for which data are available, industrial production fell in seventeen and rose in six. The largest decreases were registered in Ireland (-12.8%), Portugal (-8.8%), Greece (-7.5%), Spain (-7.0%) and Italy (-4.8%), and the highest increases in Slovakia (+13.0%), Estonia (+8.3%) and Lithuania (+8.0%).

Encouraging healthy eating habits from an early age is the idea behind the EU-funded School Fruit Scheme, which, according to the latest report, benefited 8,146,290 children from 54,267 schools during 2010/11 (a rise of 70 % compared with 2009/10). In addition, there was increased demand from the previous year on fruit and vegetables to the order of 43,730 tonnes within the EU-24 Member States. For the academic year 2012/2013, 61,230 children in 390 schools around Ireland are benefiting from the scheme.

The annual expenditure of €90 million is part of an ongoing campaign to tackle the EU-wide crisis of childhood obesity. Despite only running for three years, an evaluation report has been published showing the effect of the campaign up to now. The majority of Member States observed a positive impact of the scheme on children's fruit and vegetable consumption and indicated an increase of consumption beyond the fruit and vegetables distributed to the children. The programme has been significant, in particular, for disadvantaged children from a lower socioeconomic background.

Most people have a fear of something but for 1 in 10 people, fear can turn into a phobia. The most common phobias being a fear of spiders, snakes, heights, the dark, being in crowds or tight spaces, animals and people. Then there are the more unusual fears: Coulrophobia (fear of clowns), Nomophobia (fear of being without a mobile phone), Socerophobia (fear of the in-laws) and, probably the most ironic, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - a fear of long words.

But what causes a phobia and is there a cure? Scientists part funded by the European Commission have conducted experiments to determine the answers.

Monday 19 – Thursday 22 November: European Parliament plenary session, Strasbourg

Monday 19 November: Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels

Tuesday 20 November:  Grand Final of the Europe Direct Soapbox competition, Farmleigh House,  Dublin

Tuesday 20 November: General Affairs Council, Brussels

Tuesday 20 November: Eurogroup meeting, Brussels

Thursday 22 – Friday 23 November: European Council, Brussels

Thursday 22 November: Governing council meeting of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt

Monday 26 – Tuesday 27 November: Education, Youth, Culture & Sport Council, Brussels

Tuesday 27 November: National Information Day on the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus placement programmes, European Union House, Dublin

Tuesday 27 November  - Friday 14 December: "Amazing Croatia 1" photographic exhibition, EU House, Dublin

Wednesday 28 – Thursday 29 November: Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Brussels 

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the future of European metrology research under Horizon 2020, the EU's new programme for research and innovation for 2014 to 2020.

The European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) was established under FP7 to facilitate closer integration of national research programmes in the field. EMRP is jointly supported by 22 participating Member States and associated countries and the European Commission.

This initiative has- according to its mid-term assessment- clearly contributed to the creation of the European Research Area (ERA) in metrology research. However further steps could be done and further integration- in particular towards Member States having little metrology capacity- is suggested.

The Commission is seeking input from citizens, organisations and public authorities to assess the state of play of the European metrology research system and the challenges it is facing. Contributions will feed in the preparation work for a potential successor initiative of EMRP (European Metrology Research programme) under Horizon 2020.

The consultation runs until: 23 December 2012.

The European Commission has launched a Public Consultation on delivering a more coordinated approach to generation adequacy and security of supply in the internal electricity market and ensuring that any state interventions in this regard are well designed and effective.

In this consultation the Commission asks whether and how it can work better together to ensure a more coordinated approach to assessing generation adequacy and security in the internal electricity market. The Commission is also looking for views on different types of capacity mechanism and more detailed criteria, based on the principles of necessity and proportionality, which capacity mechanisms and other interventions should meet.

The consultation is aimed at public authorities, Member States authorities, private organisations, industry associations, SMEs, Consultancies, other relevant stakeholders and citizens (inside and outside of the European Union).

The consultation runs until 7 February 2013. 

The European Union yesterday (Wednesday) launched a drawing and writing contest for 8-24 years olds, with the four winners being invited to the 2012 Nobel Peace prize ceremony in Oslo. This contest is organised in partnership with the European Youth Forum. The four winners will be invited by the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament, to be part of the official delegation of the European Union that will travel to Oslo to receive this year's Peace Prize.

The contest will be open until 25 November, midnight CET. The European Youth Forum will pre-select the 16 best entries for each age group (8-12, 13-17, and 18-24). A jury will select three of the final winners (one per age group) who will win a trip to Oslo.

The 16 pre-selected entries from the categories 18-24 will also be posted on Facebook for a vote by the public. The candidate with the most votes will also be invited to Oslo. In addition, this winner will be invited to come to Strasbourg for a special event around the Nobel prize on 12 December, and so will the 9 runners-up.

The names of the winners will be announced during the week of the 3rd of December. Winners will attend the official ceremony on 10 December as well as the Nobel Peace Prize concert on 11 December.

Yesterday the European Commission took action to break the glass ceiling that continues to bar female talent from top positions in Europe’s biggest companies. The Commission has proposed legislation with the aim of attaining a 40% objective of women in non-executive board-member positions in publicly listed companies, with the exception of small and medium enterprises. In Ireland currently fewer than 1 in 10 board members is a woman (8.9%), which is well below the EU average of 1 in 7. Even this is only 13.7% women, up slightly from 11.8% in 2010 (see Ireland factsheet ). At this slow rate of progress it would still take around 40 years to even get close to gender balance in boardrooms.

It is for this reason that the Commission proposed EU legislation to accelerate progress towards a better gender balance on the corporate boards of European companies.

The proposal is expected to apply to around 5 000 listed companies in the European Union. It does not apply to small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with less than 250 employees and an annual worldwide turnover not exceeding 50 million EUR) or non-listed companies.

Main elements of the proposal:

• The Directive sets a minimum objective of 40% by 2020 for members of the under-represented sex for non-executive members of the boards of publicly listed companies in Europe, or 2018 for listed public undertakings. 
• The proposal also includes, as a complementary measure, a "flexi quota": an obligation for listed companies to set themselves individual, self-regulatory targets regarding the representation of both sexes among executive directors to be met by 2020 (or 2018 in case of public undertakings). Companies will have to report annually on the progress made. 
• Qualification and merit will remain the key criteria for a job on the board. The directive establishes a minimum harmonisation of corporate governance requirements, as appointment decisions will have to be based on objective qualifications criteria. Inbuilt safeguards will make sure that there is no unconditional, automatic promotion of the under-represented sex. In line with the European Court of Justice's case law on positive action, preference shall be given to the equally qualified under-represented sex, unless an objective assessment taking into account all criteria specific to the individual candidates tilts the balance in favour of the candidate of the other sex. Member States that already have an effective system in place will be able to keep it provided it is equally efficient as the proposed system in attaining the objective of a presence of 40% of the under-represented sex among non-executive directors by 2020. And Member States remain free to introduce measures that go beyond the proposed system.
• Member States will have to lay down appropriate and dissuasive sanctions for companies in breach of the Directive.
• Subsidiarity and Proportionality of the proposal: The 40% objective applies to publicly listed companies, due to their economic importance and high visibility. The proposal does not apply to small and medium enterprises. The 40% objective is focused on non-executive director posts. In line with better regulation principles, the Directive is a temporary measure and is set to expire in 2028.

Background

A growing number of studies suggest gender balanced boards have the potential to improve the financial performance of companies. Having more women in top jobs can contribute to a more productive and innovative working environment and improved company performance overall. This is mainly due to a more diverse and collective mind-set which incorporates a wider range of perspectives and therefore reaches more balanced decisions. In addition, women account for 60% of new university graduates but only few make it to the top of companies. Opening the door to senior positions will act as an incentive for women to enter and stay in the workforce, helping to raise female employment rates.

The EU's competence to legislate in gender equality matters dates back to 1957. Council Recommendations on promoting the balanced participation of men and women in the decision-making process date back to 1984 and 1996. In addition, the European Parliament has called for legally binding quotas at EU level in several Resolutions.

A report by the Commission  in March 2012 showed that, across the EU, company boards are currently dominated by one gender. There are also big differences between countries, with women making up 27% of board members in the largest Finnish companies and 26% in Latvia, but only 3% in Malta and 4% in Cyprus.

Tangible progress is the exception and not the rule. Progress is only visible in countries that have introduced legally binding laws for company boards. France, which introduced a legal quota in January 2011, accounts alone for more than 40% of the total EU-wide change recorded between October 2010 and January 2012.

In March 2011, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding challenged publicly-listed companies in Europe to voluntarily increase the number of women in their boardrooms by signing the 'Women on the Board Pledge for Europe'). The pledge called on companies to commit to raising female representation on their boards to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020. However, after a year, only 24 companies across Europe had signed the Pledge.

To identify appropriate measures for addressing the persistent lack of gender diversity in boardrooms of listed companies in Europe, the Commission launched a public consultation. Following a large number of responses, the Commission then assessed the different policy options for addressing the situation.

For more information

MEMO/12/860: Gender Equality in the Member States
 
Press pack – Women on boards 

Eurobarometer survey on gender equality  

European Commission database on women and men in decision-making