New Roaming falling charges !!!

Using a smartphone while travelling in the European Union became cheaper this week with the introduction of new cost caps on internet usage and calls.

From July 1, the cost of going online while abroad has more than halved, with the maximum price for downloading one megabyte (MB) of data – equivalent to a two-minute video clip – falling from €0.45 to €0.20.

The new Barroso could be ...

For the next president of the European Commission, the European Council has proposed today, 27 June, Jean-Claude Juncker, one of the European candidates designated by the European parties during the elections campaign. The Parliament will vote on his candidacy during the plenary session on 14-17 July. 

President Barroso declared: let me begin by expressing on my own behalf and on behalf of the European Commission my congratulations to Jean-Claude Juncker on his nomination by the European Council as President-designate. I have known Jean-Claude Juncker for more than 20 years. We have been working in very many capacities together and I really believe that he is committed European and a political leader with exceptional experience. Myself and the Commission will do everything possible in the coming months to assure a smooth transition between this Commission and the next one.

The road to the new Commission begins...

Results of the 2014 European elections

Read also the Statement of President Barroso on the outcome of the 2014 European Parliament elections

EU cu cine votez? European elections 22-25 May 2014 (for dummies)

This time is different? Your vote counts!!! How come?

because based on our votes it will be decided the president of the European Commission!

Under the slogan "Act. React.Impact" you can find all the details on the official website: http://www.elections2014.eu

If you are in doubt (eg. eu cu cine votez?) there is an online tool that will help you to decide: MyVote2014. It's an ingeniuos calculator that will help you to find the party that best represent you by proposing 15 questions (that were already debated in the European Parliament in the last 4 years) and by matching your answers to the political positions of the MEPs and of the european political parties. 

Try this tool, it's great!

This is what you need to know:

• 32 Romanian MEPs need to be elected in 2014
• we need to vote on Sunday 25 May 2014, anywhere in Europe! 
• we vote the national party of our choice
• the national distribution of votes per party will determine the number of parliamentary from each Romanian party to become european MEP
• at european level, the votes of each party are aggregated based on the political family the parties belong and the party or the alliance that has majority proposes the new President of the European Commission!!!
• Principalii candidati la sefia Comisiei Europene: Jean-Claude Juncker (gruparea de centru-dreapta), Martin Schulz (socialistii), Guy Verhofstadt (liberalii) si Jose Bove (verzii)
• who are the Romanian candidates and the parties
• Who are the most active MEP (see the activity report)
• Where you can vote in Bruxelles
• the Romanian electoral law

deci, hai la vot, neamule'

Dragomirna Church, Romania - 2014 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage Grand Prix WINNER !!!

The winners of the 2014 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage have been presented with their awards for excellence in conservation and heritage-related work.

From among 160 entries, panels of experts picked 6 projects as Grand Prix winners:

• the restoration of 17th century frescoes covering 900 square metres of wall at Dragomirna Church, Romania. This project also won the Public Choice Award after an online poll involving 10 000 voters.
• a project to restore the vernacular architecture of the late-16th to mid-19th century Walser Houses in Alagna Valsesia, Italy
• the conservation of 8 wine-making cooperatives in Catalonia, Spain, built in the early 20th century in the Modernist style and still in use today
• research into Roman building methods in the Peloponnese, Greece
• Kempen Landscape heritage association, which has devised a unique way of conserving and managing 800 hectares of a historic landscape in Belgium
• a project to raise awareness of the cultural heritage of Miskolc, Hungary, a city with a rich history that has fallen into decline since the 1980s

Each of the winners received a trophy at the Vienna ceremony on 5 May, presented by opera tenor Plácido Domingo, president of Europa Nostra. The Grand Prix winners were also awarded €10 000 each.

Commission proposes €3.6 million to help 1 000 redundant workers in Romanian steel industry

The European Commission has proposed to provide Romania with €3.6 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to help 1 000 former workers of the steel products manufacturer SC Mechel Campia Turzii SA and the downstream producer SC Mechel Reparatii Targoviste SRL to find new jobs. The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers for approval.

EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor commented: "The manufacture of finished and semi-finished steel products in the EU has been seriously disrupted due to intensified competition from countries outside the EU, particularly China. Today's proposal would help to prepare some 1 000 former steelworkers from the Cluj region in Romania for new job opportunities or to set up their own businesses".

Romania applied for support from the EGF following the dismissal of more than 1 500 workers in Mechel Campia Turzii and in Mechel Reparatii Targoviste in Romania. The dismissals were the result of increased competition from steel products manufacturers elsewhere in the world.

More details on EGF website.

EUROPEAN ICT Poles of Excellence - an Atlas of EU areas where digital technologies thrive

Wondering what makes an ICT hotspot? Take a look at Munich, London, Paris or smaller cities such as Darmstadt identified in a new EU Atlas of ICT hotspots. This atlas shows where digital technologies thrive and examines the factors contributing to this success. 

A European ICT Pole of Excellence (EIPEs) is a geographical area inside the EU, with best performing activities in ICT production, R&D and innovation, activities with a central role in global international networks.

The report looked at all EU regions in terms of ICT activity and assigned scores according to its relative weight; 14% of the regions scored above 20 points. The top 34 scored between 41 and 100.

The report analysed three elements (business activity, R&D and Innovation in the ICT sector) on the basis of their intensity (e.g. business turnover, turnover growth, number of employees), their internationalisation (e.g. how many international partners businesses/research centres/universities have) and networking (what is the role of each region in networks: which of them are hubs and connect directly to many partners, which of them have links that only allow few exchanges)

Check the Infograf for more details.

PS: Romania has no regions highligthed...

mHealth - what is it and do I want it?

There are nearly 100,000 mHealth #apps already available across multiple platforms such as iTunes, Google play, Windows Marketplace, BlackBerry World. The top 20 free sports, fitness and health apps already account for 231 million downloads worldwide. 
By 2017, 3.4 billion people worldwide will own a smartphone and half of them will be using mHealth apps. In 2017, if its potential is fully unlocked, mHealth could save €99 billion in healthcare costs in the EU.
 
The Commission is launching a public consultation on the Green Paper on mobile health, inviting comments on the barriers and issues related to the use of mHealth. Your input will help identify the right way forward to unlock the potential of mobile health in the EU. The Commission also publishes a Staff Working Document on the existing EU legal framework applicable to lifestyle and wellbeing apps, aiming at providing simple guidance to app developers on EU legislation in the field.

The Public consultation on the Commission's Green Paper on mobile health is open until July 2014!

COPERNICUS - 1st satellite launch!

Copernicus is a European system for monitoring the Earth, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation.

Copernicus consists of a complex set of systems which collect data from multiple sources: earth observation satellites and in situ sensors such as ground stations, airborne and sea-borne sensors. It processes these data and provides users with reliable and up-to-date information through a set of services related to environmental and security issues...

The services address six thematic areas: land, marine, atmosphere, climate change, emergency management and security. They support a wide range of applications, including environment protection, management of urban areas, regional and local planning, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, transport, climate change, sustainable development, civil protection and tourism.

Sentinel1-A, the first satellite of this family, is scheduled for launch on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Thursday, 3 Apr 2014. Sentinel-1B will be launched in 2015.

The launch was successful – find more pictures on ESA blog.