Galileo satellites for the economy and daily lifeThe first two satellites of the EU’s global space navigation system are due to be launched on 20 October. “The placing in orbit of the Galileo satellites – explains a Commission statement – at an altitude of 23,600 km will enable the EU to provide some initial satellite navigation services in 2014”. The launch (using a Soyuz launcher) will be the first of a series planned from Europe’s spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana: the constellation of EU satellites will be completed by 2019. According to the Executive it’s a launch of historic importance. “Europe is demonstrating that it has the capacity to be in the forefront of technological innovation. Thousands of small and medium European enterprises will be able to identify opportunities for business, creating and developing products based on Galileo’s future infrastructures. Funds allocated to Galileo are a good investment for competitiveness”. The Galileo programme – under the management of ESA, the European Space Agency – is an initiative aimed “at the realization of a state-of-the-art global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civil control”. Galileo “will support numerous areas of the EU economy through its services: electronic networks, fleet management companies, financial transactions, naval industries, search and rescue operations, peace missions”, in other words those sectors “that depend heavily on satellite navigation systems”. Galileo, moreover, “ensures Europe of strategic independence in a technology fundamental for such key sectors as energy distribution or telecommunications”. This system “ought to lead – according to the data published by the Commission – to a growth of the European economy equivalent to 60 billion euro in a period of 20 years, both in terms of added revenues for industry and for public and social utility”.SME advocates to protect small and medium enterprisesControlling the correct application of European rules and regulations on small and medium enterprises (SME) and ensuring that policies at the national, regional and local are favourable to entrepreneurship: these are the two main tasks that the EU is assigning to newly appointed advocates to protect the interests of small and medium sized businesses throughout the Union (23 million firms, equivalent to 98% of all the businesses of the 27, and corresponding to two thirds of the total private employment in the EU). These representatives have been given the name “Mr SME” or “Mrs SME”. The European Commission has designated Daniel Calleja Crespo, Deputy Director of its Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, as the Envoy of SMEs throughout the EU. Each member state ought now to proceed to the appointment of a national Envoy. Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the Executive, says: “The new SME Envoys will ensure that administrations ‘think small first’ and take the interests of SMEs into account for every new law and regulation”. The aim of the new SME Envoys, continues Tajani, is to “create an ecosystem that is right for small businesses together, allowing them to unleash their great drive and potential to create jobs and growth”. The initiative is comprised among those indicated by the Small Business Act.Harsher provisions against fraud to the damage of the UnionThe European Commission has set out a package of measures aimed at enabling public prosecutors and magistrates “to combat more effectively fraud to the damage of the financial interests of the European Union itself” and hence taxpayers. With its provision published on 26 May, the Executive “plans to strengthen substantive criminal law by clarifying definitions of crime such as embezzlement or abuse of power and reinforce the capacities of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and Eurojust” (the EU’s judicial cooperation body). The European Union will also “consider how a specialized European Public Prosecutor’s office could apply common rules on fraud and other offences involving EU funds”. Also thanks to the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, the Commission has the duty to verify that EU funds are used “exclusively for realizing policies approved by the European legislator”, whereas today policing capabilities are limited. Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding declared: “In 2009 alone, there was 280 million euro in suspected fraud cases involving EU funds, representing less than 0.2% of the EU’s total budget. In times of economic austerity, every euro cent of the EU’s budget counts. The EU will not tolerate than any taxpayer money is misspent. Crimes that rob the EU’s public purse are crimes against the EU taxpayers. Thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, we have strengthened the legal tools to tackle cross-border fraud”.
