The report, unveiled at a seminar in the European Parliament, examined how the semester results tallied with the EU’s 2020 strategy.

The findings showed that the EU will miss its 75% employment target by up to 2.6%, fall short of its target of 3% expenditure of GDP on research and that member states will fail to attain its 2020 goal of a 20% improvement in energy efficiency.

Flagships have disappeared over the horizon

While people in the US, the UK, and many European countries including Belgium, are mobilising for mass street protests in their cities this Saturday, people in the capital of the EU will put on a comparatively smaller show. 

500 protesters expected in Brussels

In comparison to the 4,000 people expected to arrive at the London Stock Exchange, just over 500 people are expected to arrive at Rue Wiertz outside the European Parliament in Brussels.

Sophia Chrysopoulou is a young Greek professional with six years' experience of European affairs in Brussels.

"A definition of a 'near death experience' may refer to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impeding death, encompassing multiple possible sensations, including the experience of absolute dissolution and the presence of a light. It is said that these phenomena are frequently reported after an individual has been pronounced dead or close to death.

The brief – launched in Brussels yesterday (6 October) by the Lisbon Council – claims that the 20^th century logic that required large foreign talent pools to achieve a global reach has been ‘stood on its head’ and larger companies are now bogged down in bureaucracy and overstaffing, with slow decision-making processes.

Calling it a last resort action, Johannes Hahn, Commissioner in charge of regional policy, tried to counter criticism at the proposal and underlined that the effectiveness of cohesion policy in promoting growth and jobs depended significantly on countries’ sound macro-economic policies.

Taking stock of past experiences, Hahn said, the Commission felt it was necessary to establish a tighter link between EU cohesion funding and the countries’ economic and fiscal policies.

Rocky start

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Domenico Lenarduzzi

Domenico Lenarduzzi

Wed, 2011-09-21 16:07

• education

Domenico Lenarduzzi is the father of the Erasmus programme, which was launched more than 20 years ago to fund university student mobility. Erasmus was behind countless initiatives supporting education and training across Europe

Now a retired Commission director-general, Lenarduzzi worked for over 30 years in the EU executive and was the one who devised the programme when he was head of unit.

A plan approved by the Hungarian Parliament in July requires anyone who receives a social allowance to work on construction sites, to clean the streets or maintain parks and forests. In the case of refusal, the allowances would be stopped. Some flexibility is envisaged with respect to elderly and sick people, as well as to single parents with children.

Some 300,000 people are expected to be working in "community services". Officially targeted toward the jobless, according to critics, the plan is ethnically motivated and directed toward the Roma population.