07/06/2010

Commission provides 46 million euros for urgent humanitarian needs in Sudan.

the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, and the Executive director of the World Food Program (WFP) Josette Sheeran presented this year's largest funding agreement between the European Commission and the World Food Programme (WFP). The 46 million euros agreement announced today will be used to provide immediate food assistance for the populations in Darfur and Southern Sudan [COM-070610].

04/06/2010

Korea: framework agreement between the EU and Korea.

The Council adopted a decision on the signing of the framework agreement between the European Union and its member states, on the one part, and the Republic of Korea, of the other part. The agreement is based on shared principles and values and aims to strengthen the partnership between the parties and to develop cooperation areas at bilateral, regional and global levels. [VA-060610].

17/05/2010

EU to support small-scale farming in developing world .

Food security assistance to developing countries should focus on supporting small-scale food production and farmers, EU development ministers said [AM-EU170510].

Development aid: strong EU commitment needed to get MDGs back on track.

Innovative development funding mechanisms, such as a financial transaction tax, need to be backed by the EU, as the world's leading aid donor, ahead of the September UN summit in New York to review the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said Development Committee MEPs [PE-110510].

11/05/2010

Europeans target better health services for sub-Saharan Africa.

People living in sub-Saharan Africa continue to feel the pressure of increasing poverty and morbidity (incidence of specific diseases). Teenagers in particular are at risk of reproductive health problems, and now a new EU-funded project is set to address this problem by investigating the effectiveness of existing programmes and identifying the structural drivers that restrict access to adolescent reproductive health (ARH) services in Niger and Tanzania [Cord070510].

23/04/2010

MDGs: Commission calls Member States to get back on track for more and better aid .

The European Commission has adopted an ambitious action plan for EU action to speed up progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2009, the EU aid level has slightly decreased and amounted 49bn euros. This corresponds to 0.42 percent of EU GNI, making the EU still far from meeting the intermediate collective target of 0,56 percent GNI by 2010, before reaching 0.7 percent EU GNI by 2015 [FI-EUTAX-210410].

22/04/2010

E-waste in developing countries needs careful management.

Rapidly rising sales of electronic goods could cause huge amounts of hazardous electronic waste (e-waste) to build up in developing countries over the next 10 years, a new study has concluded. Prompt action is needed to ensure e-waste is properly managed in emerging economies to protect the environment and human health.[AM-ScEnv220410].

30/03/2010

Reforming subsidies that harm the environment.

Subsidies support economic sectors and grant advantages to consumers, but can harm the environment. A new study has tested a number of existing tools for assessing environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS), developed a comprehensive methodology for identifying and analysing EHS and highlighted opportunities for reforming them [AM-250310].

17/01/2010

Finding finance for climate change adaptation .

Additional funding mechanisms are required to finance adaptation to climate change in developing countries, according to a new study. The study predicts how relationships between costs associated with adapting to and mitigating against climate change, and costs associated with damages caused by climate change, will progress over the next century. [AM-140109].

11/01/2010

EIB provides EUR 37 million to improve air transport within Azores and Madeira .

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 37 million (USD 53 million) loan to SATA Air Acores (SATA) for the acquisition of four turboprop aircraft to provide inter-island transport services within the Azores archipelago, replacing the same number of older aircraft [VA-070110] .

Guatemala: the Commission provides 1,325 million eur in humanitarian aide to cope with the drought.

The European Commission has allocated eur 1.325 to help the population in the region between Guatemla and Honduras is suffering from a severe drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon. The funds will be channelled through the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) with projects implemented by its humanitarian partners[COM-080110].

06/01/2010

Agriculture: Copa-Cogeca regrets EU-Morocco agreement.

''The impact of the new trade liberalising agreement between the EU and Morocco will be disastrous for fruit and vegetable production in the EU, particularly for tomatoes'', the European agriculture organisation Copa-Cogeca said[AG-221209].

Human Rights: European Parliament approves resolutions on Uganda and Azerbaijan.

Two human rights resolutions - on anti-homosexual draft legislation in Uganda and freedom of expression in Azerbaijan - were approved by Parliament. A debate and vote on the case of West Sahara human rights activist Aminatou Haidar were removed from the agenda [EP-171209].

Research: Second-hand is cheaper but wreaks havoc on environment.

Developing countries purchase second-hand merchandise like factories and tools from Europe and the US to save money and make good use of items that are still too young for the bin. Writing in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, researchers from France and Luxembourg contend that the export of old tools and technologies abroad has deterred countries from adopting technology that is both non-polluting and friendlier to the environment. [Cordis news-060109].