EU BULLETIN • ISSUE 11 / June 2013

EU-Updates

European Council Meeting Conclusions - June 2013: Against the background of a weak short-term economic outlook, youth unemployment has reached unprecedented levels in several Member States, with huge human and social costs. Urgent action must be taken.  More

Joint statement by EC President Barroso and European Council President Van Rompuy after the G8 Summit in Lough Erne "Overall, we are pleased that our ambitions for this summit have been broadly achieved."  More

 Message by President Barroso after the summit (video clip)  More

Remarks by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht after the 27th EU- Joint Committee: "Let me first thank Minister Gao Hucheng for his warm welcome to Beijing today for the 27th EU-China Joint Committee."  More

EU-Hong Kong/ Macao Annual Reports 2012 EU publishes annual reports on Hong Kong and Macao Since the handover of Hong Kong and Macao in 1997 and 1999 respectively, the and its Member States have closely followed political and economic developments in two special administrative regions.

 EU-Hong Kong Annual Report 2012  More  EU-Macao Annual Report 2012  More

EU -Human Rights

EU-China Dialogue on Human Rights: On 25 June 2013, the European Union and the People's Republic of China held the 32nd round of the "EU-China Dialogue on Human Rights" in Guiyang (Guizhou), China.  More

Joint Statement on World Refugee Day "On the World Refugee Day, our thoughts are, more than ever, with the millions of women, children and men, around the world who are forced to flee their home countries because of war, conflict, or persecution. This is still a reality

in today's world.  More

Asylum decisions in the EU27 EU Member States granted protection to more than 100 000 asylum seekers in 2012: The EU27 Member States granted protection to 102 700 asylum seekers in 2012, compared with 84 300 in 2011. In 2012, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in Germany (22 200), followed by Sweden (15 300), the United Kingdom (14 600) and France (14 300).  More

EU Guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief: The right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, more commonly referred to as the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is a fundamental right of every human being.  More

Guidelines to promote and protect the enjoyment of all human rights by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons: The rights of LGBTI persons are protected under existing international human rights law, although specific action is often required in order to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons.  More

Consultation: New EU guidelines on Freedom of Expression: Have your say!  More

EU-Cyber Strategy "A Coordinated Response to Cyber Threats" To successfully counter this emerging cyber threat, cooperation between national security, defence, law enforcement and technical incident response organisations within and between Member States needs to be encouraged to identify and exploit synergies.  More

Credible cyber security strategy in the EU needs to be built on privacy and trust: Cyber security is not an excuse for the unlimited monitoring and analysis of the personal information of individuals, said the European Data Protection Supervisor following the publication of his opinion on the EU's strategy on cyber security.  More

EU-Economic News

EU ready for trade and investment negotiations with the : The Council of the European Union adopted a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate a comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the United States, the "transatlantic trade and investment partnership.  More

EU-Economic News A Free Trade Agreement between the EU and The EU and Japan are pushing ahead with their negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement  More

Keynote speech by , EC Vice-President at the Economic Forum: "First, financial stability is now credibly anchored. The European Stability Mechanism is operational, and with the ECB's announcement on Outright Monetary Transactions, it has helped to stabilise the financial and bond markets."  More

The EU's free trade agreements – where are we? Over the next two years, 90% of world demand will be generated outside the EU.  More

April 2013 Euro area international trade in goods surplus 14.9 bn euro 9.2 bn euro surplus for EU27 The first estimate for the euro area1 (EA17) trade in goods balance with the rest of the world in April 2013 gave a 14.9 billion euro surplus, compared with +3.3 bn in April 2012.  More

EU-Environmental News A strategy on Europe's adaptation to climate change On 18 June 2013, the Environment Council adopted conclusions on a strategy on adaptation to climate change.  More

"No city is an island" speech by José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission Cities are an essential part of Europe's history. From Athens and Rome via the 15th century Italian city states and the Hanze network - spanning some 200 cities from Bruges to Tallinn - vibrant cities have made us what we are in terms of trade, art and society.  More

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