Green Week: environment and biodiversity The tenth European Green Week will be held in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 1st to 4 June. This is an annual four-day conference that focuses attention on the main environmental questions faced by the continent and by the planet. The specific issue to be addressed by Green Week this year is biodiversity, on which the Commission has long been insisting. European Commissioner Janez Potocnik will inaugurate the conference which comprises 30 sessions of discussion. It will also focus on EU environmental policies and their economic and social repercussions. Numerous ancillary events for the public are also on the programme (films, exhibitions). The official website of the Green Week (http://ec.europa.eu/greenweek) says that "some 3,800 participants are expected", coming "from the EU institutions, the world of industry and enterprise, and non-governmental organizations", as well as public authorities and representatives of the universities and the scientific community.Small and medium enterprises, EU supportA thousand events including trade fairs, ateliers and conferences realized according to the criterion of "decentralization", in 37 countries: that, in a nutshell, is the programme of the 2nd "European Small and Medium enterprises (SME) week", promoted by the Commission, launched on 25 May and due to end on 1st June. The main objective is to "present the projects and aid established by the EU to support small and medium enterprises". SME week 2010 is intended, in particular, to "support the spirit of enterprise": for this reason the calendar of the Week contains various opportunities aimed at "promoting entrepreneurship as a professional choice, especially for the young". A further objective is to "recognize the role of entrepreneurs in improving prosperity, job creation and development of innovation in Europe". SME Week, explains a statement put out by the Commission, takes the form of a series of events and activities aimed at "offering SME an occasion to share experiences, with the aim of further developing their business". For information a special website has been created in all the EU official languages: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/entrepreneurship/sme-week/. Universities: social dimension, fair accessA "social responsibility" is incumbent on the academic world, given that "universities are one of the decisive factors to generate an economic model that may permit lasting growth for the European Union". The point was made by Ángel Gabilondo, Spanish Minister of Education, speaking in the name of the current Spanish Presidency of the EU in his address inaugurating the conference dedicated to the question, held at Malaga on 24-25 May. According to the Minister, "endowing the universities with a social dimension is a form of qualitative progress in the sense that it would permit all the knowledge they generate to be placed at the disposal of citizens". "Knowledge is not a value in itself", added the Minister: and if it lacks transparency, respect, an ethical dimension and good governance, it "lacks meaning and relevance". Gabilondo further added that university policies "must encourage fairness in access to studies so that no talent be ignored and no one excluded from quality teaching". This is an essential principle reaffirmed in the Europe 2020 Strategy that the EU is currently formulating to support growth and employment. "If we want a high-yield economy we must make growth and social inclusion compatible", and this compatibility is once again based on equality of access to education.Europe and Asia united for the Millennium Goals"EU and Asia have to join forces to reach the Millennium Development Goals and trigger opportunities for growth and jobs in the region", said EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs during his visit to Indonesia from 24 to 26 May where he attended the second Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Development Conference and also participated in high level discussions on EU-Indonesia cooperation. Commenting on the region’s problems he said: "Too many people still live in poverty, child and maternal mortality is too high, and climate change threatens to reduce living standards. Our actions must be a catalyst for change". Apart from participating in the meeting, Piebalgs confirmed EU commitment in the field of education, signing an accord for a for a basic schooling support programme amounting to 200 million euros in Indonesia. "A State he declared cannot grow if its population is illiterate. The programme we are launching demonstrates that the EU supports this country’s commitment to give education to each child". The Commissioner signed, with the Indonesian Minister of Education Mohammad Nuh, a programme of aid for the educational sector "aimed at supporting the Indonesian government in tackling the challenges of regional disparities in access to schooling and quality education".
