Brussels Briefing
Over the weekend all restaurant menus and packages of food had to list if they contained any of 14 ingredients to which people may be allergic to.
Thankfully you can leave the microscope at home when shopping as the new rules say the products must be highlighted in the ingredients list.
Any nano ingredients must also be listed together with exactly what any oil is made from.
Though the size of type will still be small for the first time the rules set a minimum size of 1.2mm.
And from April the country that pigs, sheep, goats and poultry were reared and slaughtered must be displayed. Only beef is at the moment.
The hope is that this will avoid any future horse-meat scandals. From the end of 2016 all food and drink will have to carry nutrition information.
Ensuring women have the same rights to a decent amount of maternity leave across the EU has been branded as ‘red-tape’ by the European Commission.
Word is that they will this week withdraw the legislation that member states have been kicking to touch for the past four years.
Frans Timmermans, the Dutch man who is Commission first vice-president, is expected to tell the European Parliament that countries have their own maternity leave rules and that’s enough.
Business has pushed to scrap it using the recession as an excuse.
The European Women’s Lobby says the move suggests women’s rights are optional and point to Slovenia where the pay of new mothers on maternity leave has been cut — legally allowing employers to discriminate against them.
National Front leader Marine Le Pen has confirmed that she has borrowed €9m from a Russian bank owned by a friend of President Vladimir Putin. Some say it’s the first instalment of a €40m loan.
Now her father, Jean-Marie, previous leader of the racist, anti-EU France party has said it is not their first Russian loan and that previous sums could have been up to €20m.
All airlines from Libya have been added to the list of 310 airlines banned from flying into the EU for safety reasons.
The ongoing civil war in the north African country has been blamed for the ban, with transport commissioner Violeta Bulc saying their civil aviation authority can no longer guarantee safety.
All airlines in 21 countries — many of them African — have been banned, while 10 others are allowed to fly into the EU but subject to certain conditions, such as the kind of plane they use.
Some countries’ airlines are improving and may be taken off the ban list, she said. But the safety of the 800m passengers using 450 European airports is the priority. The industry supports 5.1m jobs in the EU and generates €1bn daily.
Greece is one again rattling Europe with the prospect of the EU sceptical Syriza party coming to power if a vote on a new president for the country that begins this week fails.
There will be three rounds of votes among the parliamentarians, but if the big majority needed is not reached, then the government will fall.
The Troika has been unwilling to give the go-ahead for the release of bailout funds because they don’t trust the figures the Greek government has been giving them.
Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici is to visit Athens today but many are seeing this as the latest pressure from Brussels, and they don’t like it.
The laws on using CCTV cameras vary across Europe.
But a ruling during the week from the European Court of Justice could change that.
The court heard about a man whose windows were broken by vandals but who caught their antics on film thanks to surveillance cameras.
He handed it to the police, who used it to find and prosecute the suspects. But the Czech court asked for guidance on whether in fact having CCTV in public places violates the EU’s data protection laws.
The Luxembourg judges said that it does but added that it could be used in the prevention and prosecution of crime.
What should be the world’s biggest on-line jobs agency is getting closer to reality with Employment Ministers agreeing to beef-up the EU’s job search network.
They want to have all EU governments advertise their vacancies on it, and want private employers to use it also.
In fact they say that it will be a must and only very specific exceptions will be allowed.
They are going to improve the way the site matches job offers with applicant’s CVs, and improve the likelihood of the right CV finding the right job offer.
There will also be helpful information on living and working conditions in each country, and help for jobseekers in putting together their application for work.
Now it will be up to the European Parliament to vote on the new Eures site.
The battle to defeat ebola is entering a crucial stage with the disease still wrecking havoc on people in a number of African states where it has affected over 17,000, and killing 6,300 in 10 months.
Most EU countries are involved in the response with 1,500 tons of food, 50 vehicles, medical supplies, and protective clothing for health personnel leaving on board a Dutch ship.
The EU is co-ordinating the contributions from 13 countries.
EU countries have sent field and mobile hospitals and medical teams while others are strengthening contingency plans to evacuate aid personnel who contract the disease.
Mobile laboratories are proving their value, being deployed to areas where a new outbreak is reported.
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