Agriculture and fishing, trade deal with Palestine”This agreement offers an opportunity for the Palestinian people, a first step towards the development of a nation”, commented MEP Maria Eleni Koppa, European rapporteur of the provision approved by the European parliament on 27 September, thanks to which a trade deal will be established between the 27 EU states and the Palestinian National Authority: it will now be possible for farm produce, processed farm produce and fisheries produce on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to be imported into Europe without having to pay customs dues. Equally some EU products can be exported to Palestine. In practice two-way trade between EU and Palestine will no longer pass under the control of the Israeli customs authorities, as has happened hitherto. The agreement, which will come into force in 2012, signed for 10 years and renewable, will permit “the economic development of the Territories”; if Palestinian imports into the EU on a customs-exempt regime should increase to a point at which they distort the EU’s internal market (an eventuality considered improbable by the EP), the EU can adopt safeguard measures to protect its market. “The Palestinian Authority – points out a statement of the Parliament in Strasbourg – is at present the EU’s smallest trading partner in the Euro-Mediterranean region and one of the smallest worldwide. Total trade amounted to EUR 56.6 million in 2009, of which EUR 50.5 were EU exports”. Trade between the Palestinian Authority and the EU increased in 2010.Small enterprises, an EU “network” in 49 countriesThe Enterprise Europe Network, the network of support to enterprises and innovation created by the EU especially for the benefit of small and medium enterprises (SME), is widening its range of action, creating new points of contact in Japan and doubling its presence in China. “The objective – according to the Commission – is to increase the number of European SMEs that profit from rapidly growing markets in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe”. The network is planned to be further enlarged to the countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, with “eight points of contact in Tunisia, a long-standing partner in Egypt and branches to be opened in the very near future in Morocco”. The network was launched to help businesses “to find potential partners on European and international markets and transform research and innovation into profits”. A review of achievements so far was conducted during the annual conference of the EEN, held in Warsaw on 26 September. In particular the network – currently disseminated in 49 States outside the EU – is operating in Japan with two centres in Tokyo located respectively in the Euro-Japanese Centre for Industrial Cooperation and in the Ministry for the Economy. Thirteen branches “have been added to the network in China which is now present in fourteen cities. The new countries that have recently joined the network include Ukraine, Moldova and Mexico”. The network is now devoting privileged attention to North Africa to support its development and its democratic transition. The main partners of the Enterprise Europe Network include chambers of commerce, business agencies, regional development organizations, research institutes, universities, and centres of technology and industrial innovation.Finland, young scientists awarded prizesThey come from Ireland, Switzerland and Lithuania, the young scientists who won the 23rd EU competition dedicated to them. The winning projects, awarded prizes at Helsinki on 27 September, involve the sectors of IT, engineering and medicine and were selected by an international jury from the 87 projects entered in the competition from 37 countries. The projects were described during a five-day event. The second prizes were awarded to teams of scientists from Germany, the UK and Bulgaria, while the third prizes went to young Norwegian, Polish and British researchers. The winners – all less than 21 years old – will share between them an overall sum of EUR 51,000. “Young researchers of talent will help to shape our future”, said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. “We must find responses to the greatest challenges of society such as climate change, the search for sources of sustainable energy, food sustenance in the world and the fight against diseases. I therefore encourage the young to follow a career in the scientific field and maintain Europe at the highest levels” in the field of science and its applications. The projects presented, points out the Commission, “which had already been awarded first prize in the respective competitions held at the national level, covered a wide range of scientific sectors: biology, chemistry, information technology, social sciences, environmental sciences, mathematics, sciences of materials, engineering and medicine”. The applications presented to the jury “are always of the highest level and many of the students who participated in previous editions of the prize have later gone on to make discoveries of scientific importance or founded enterprises to commercialize the ideas developed during the competition”.
