EU and the UK
date: 17/03/2017
2016 Report of the Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products
On 16 March, the Commission unveiled the results of the 2016 annual report on the Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products. Since 2003, this system ensures that information about dangerous products withdrawn from the market and/or recalled from consumers anywhere in Europe is quickly circulated between member states and the European Commission, so that appropriate action can immediately be taken across the EU. It enables a quick exchange of information about dangerous products posing a risk to health and safety of consumers i.e. chemical risks, etc. Thirty-one countries (EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) currently participate.
Most countries notified products belonging to categories ‘toys’ and ‘clothing, textiles and fashion items’. The United Kingdom was amongst countries which concentrated more on ‘motor vehicles’.
Tenth anniversary of the European Research Council
From 13 to 20 March, special events are taking place across the UK and Europe to mark the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council (ERC) – the first European funding organisation that supports excellence in frontier research. In the UK, the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Newcastle, Oxford, Queen Mary, Roehampton, Sheffield and the Tate gallery in London organised events for the ERC week. For example, Wild Sensing, an EU-funded project, had an interactive installation – at Tate Exchange – which made it possible for visitors to observe the movements of Arctic animals. These movements help understand climate change. Since 2007, the ERC has funded 858 British researchers and a total of, 1,488 top researchers based in UK host institutions, most of these focused on physical sciences and engineering. The total ERC funding awarded to UK researchers in the last ten years is about €2.6 billion (£2.2bn).
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