Cities can win an award of €10,000 with the European Commission’s newly introduced Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan award. The European Commission recognises that sustainable urban mobility planning is key to creating sustainable urban transport systems which meet people’s needs. The EU’s first award has been launched to encourage the adoption of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans...

The European Commission has announced the final and biggest ever set of calls for proposals for research under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). €8.1 billion will support projects and ideas that will boost Europe’s competitiveness and tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and...

The European Commission is launching a new public consultation, which is meant to provide input for the mid-term review of the industrial policy communication planned for September 2012. This review will focus on developing a limited number of new initiatives that can deliver substantial results in the short to medium-term. The consultation is due to identify...

The European Commission has proposed to boost innovation to deal with water related challenges by creating a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water. The EIP on Water will seek to align the activities and outcomes of existing European, national and regional activities. Anticipated outputs of the EIP on water include: Innovation sites to identify barriers...

The aim of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EIA Directive) is to ensure that projects which are likely to have a significant effect on the environment are adequately assessed before they are approved. To identify and assess possible impacts on the environment before any decision is taken to allow the project to proceed. To allow...

The Council of the European Commission has agreed on the main elements of the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Programme (called COSME) which is designed to boost the creation, growth and competitiveness of this category of companies across the EU. COSME budget of 2.5 billion euros for the whole period. Final...

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has released a report which describes a platform for the exchange and harmonisation of geographic and environmental data across the EU-27, aimed to better address water management, disaster mitigation, public health, agriculture and nature protection. The report shows how spatial information from data from 27 countries maintained...

The European Commission has proposed a list of products and materials to clarify what should and should not be considered as packaging. Some 26 items have been added to an annex to the 2004 EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The list was sent to the Council of Ministers last week following a consultation with...