IP/09/1996 Brussels, 22 nd December 2009 State aid: Commission temporarily approves urgent rescue aid for WestLB; opens in-depth investigation into bad bank The European Commission has temporarily approved, under EU state aid rules, the setting up of …
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IP/09/1995 Brussels, 22 nd December 2009 Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of asset management arm of Société Générale by Crédit Agricole The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of most of the …
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IP/09/1994 Brussels, 22 December 2009 Mergers: Commission approves proposed acquisition of Océ by Canon The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Océ , of The Netherlands, by the Japanese company Canon. …
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IP/09/1989 Brussels, 22 nd December 2009 State aid: Commission temporarily authorises aid measures for Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K. The European Commission has authorised under EU state aid rules a €550million capital injection and a €400 million guarantee …
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IP/09/1992 Brussels, 22 December 2009 Occupied Palestinian Territory: Commission boosts humanitarian funding by €7 million The European Commission is increasing its funding by €7 million to provide relief to the most vulnerable populations in the occupied …
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IP/09/1997 Brussels, 22 December 2009 Environment: Council Conclusions European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas joined the Presidency in concluding that the Copenhagen Accord is a first step towards a legally binding global climate agreement….
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Denmark, Switzerland and Israel jointly announce the third Call for Proposals for joint R&D projects, focusing on developing innovative products and applications in different technology areas
Denmark and Israel are jointly announcing the thirdd Call for Proposals - for joint R&D projects, focusing on developing innovative products and applications in different technology areas. This call is announced within the framework of the MoU signed between the two countries for cooperation in the field of industrial research and development.
The main objective of this Call is to launch projects with joint participation from the two countries and provide R&D funding to qualifying participants through the national programs managed by respective: the Office of
the Chief Scientist (OCS) in Israel and DASTI, the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation in Denmark. The program is managed in cooperation and in line with the Eureka-Eurostars innovation platform (www.eureka.be).
Call Launch and Structure
The Call is launched on November 16th, 2009. The call invites partners to present joint proposals for R&D projects and the first phase of the call will close on February 25, 2010. Projects starts are foreseen at the second quarter of 2010.
The submission and the approval procedures will be as follows.
1. Since the Eurostars framework is specifically targeted to support R&D performing SME’s (www.eurostarseureka.
eu) project partners that qualify to the Eurostars program will be recommended to submit their applications electronically to Eurostars Secretariat on February 25, 2010. Matimop and DASTI will provide the submission guidelines and timetable to the project partners. The forms can be downloaded from Eurostars web site: www.eurostars-eureka.eu
2. Pre- competitive R&D projects may be also considered for funding. That allows small consortia of academia and industry from both countries to work together on feasibility studies etc.
Partnering Opportunities and pre-project funding:
For partner search requests and information about the pre-project funding program in both sides- contact details are given below.
Project content and evaluation
Expected project results will have to contribute to the development of commercial products, applications and or services. The proposals should comply with the following guidelines:
• The partners should include at least one Israeli and one Danish commercial company (though
participation of research institutes/universities is welcome as additional participants or subcontractors according to each country’s funding regulations).
• Companies from other countries may also participate, but they will be funded neither by OCS nor by DASTI.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the cooperation between the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• The project should demonstrate the contribution of the participants from both countries
Financing Applying the EUREKA structure, project participants will finance their costs from own funds, capital market or the applicable national, regional or international funding schemes.
The Swedish Presidency of the EU has reached several achievements: the Lisbon treaty, the reform of the institutions, the financial crisis. However we can point out some failures regarding the “swedish method” first and second, regarding the Copenhagen summit.
article in french only
Barroso, President of the European Commission handed out the awards of the first ever EU Prize for Literature together with the Ambassador for this year’s prize, Henning Mankell, and the former, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Jan Figel.
The prize aims at putting the spotlight on the creative and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature, promoting greater circulation of literature within Europe and interest in non-national literary works.
The Prize consists of an award to a talent from each of the participating countries in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. The 12 countries selected for the 2009 Awards were: Austria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden.
The new emerging talents were selected on the basis of requirements stipulated by the European Commission: The authors are a citizen of one of the 12 countries selected; the authors have published between 2 and 5 books of fiction and the books should have been published during the five years before the prize.
Over 99 percent of the € 259 million Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community has been contracted by the European Commission before the deadline of last Friday 18 December 2009. A total of 880 contracts, most of them grants, have been signed.
Examples of projects financed include :
*Grants to Turkish Cypriot NGOs, villages, schools, students, SMEs (€ 35 million)
*Reconciliation and confidence building projects such as demining (€ 6.5 million) and the Committee of Missing Persons (€ 3.5 million)
*Projects in the water sector including desalination and waste water treatment plants in the northern part of Cyprus (€ 73 million)
*Assistance to support the preparation for the implementation of the ” acquis communautaire” in the northern part of Cyprus following reunification (€14.5 million)
Details of contracts, including recipients of grants, will be published shortly on the Aidco website:
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm
The implementation of the projects will continue until 2012.