The European Parliament today adopted a draft Resolution to combat youth unemployment. “If Europe does not act firmly to tackle youth unemployment, it risks losing whole generations from the labour market forever. The situation in several Member States such as Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal is highly alarming. We expect decisive and firm action from the European Council.

IRU Road Transport Indices show that Jordan and other countries in the Middle East are on the road to success, but more needs to be done to facilitate trade and international road transport and therefore foster economic development.

Reacting to a European Parliament vote on new EU legislation on transparency for payments to governments by multinational companies in extractive industries, GUE/NGL MEP Jiří Maštálka welcomed the result but said more ambitious measures would be needed in future.

BRUSSELS, 12 June 2013 – The European Commission’s Digital Access Scoreboard, published earlier today, confirms that the European telecommunications market needs more investments in state of the art infrastructures to close the gap with the US and Asia.

In the case of Broadband networks, it is clear that improvements have been made with over 54% of European households benefiting from 30Mbps connections or stronger. However, a clear deregulatory agenda is paramount to unlock further investments and ensure that the Commission remains on track to reach its Digital Agenda goals.

EUROBAT elected Johann-Friedrich Dempwolff (General Manager, Vice President Industry and Governmental Relations Johnson Controls Power Solutions EMEA) as new president of the association for the next two years. The appointment took place last week during EUROBAT meetings in Rome, Italy. Mr Dempwolff has been a board member of the association for over two years and has served as chair of the automotive batteries committee for the past ten years.