Nobel Peace Prize project for children in war and conflict areas"It was obvious for us that the Nobel Peace Prize money should be allocated to the most vulnerable who are often the hardest hit by wars: the children of this world. We want all children to enjoy the constant protection of their rights". José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission thus commented on the EU decision to devolve the amount conferred with the Nobel to educational projects for children living in four regions marked by war: Pakistan, Syria, Congo-Ethiopia and Colombia-Ecuador. The European Commission decided to top up the approximate 930,000 to 2 million to be allocated to children that are most in need. "Each and every girl and boy in the world should have the opportunity to develop their talents. Promoting education is also giving peace a chance to be a lasting peace. We want "children of war" to become "children of peace", Barroso said on December 18. For the Commission, the initiative "Children of Peace" will reach out to over 23,000 conflict-affected children worldwide and will continue also after this initial funding. It will benefit around 4,000 Syrian refugee children in camps at the border between Iraq and Syria; more than 5,000 Colombian children, most of them refugees in Ecuador; 11,000 Congolese children displaced in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and refugees in Ethiopia; 3,000 Pakistani children in the conflicted-affected north of the country. From the Commission measures against smoking To discourage smoking, guarding citizens against the risk deriving from tobacco, cigarettes and cigars. On December 19 Tonio Borg, neo EU health commissioner for consumer protection, presented a proposal for the revision of the directive on tobacco, which is due to be examined by EU Council and Parliament. Borg said: "70% of the smokers start before the age of 18 and 94% before the age of 25 years. The legislative proposal aims at making tobacco products and tobacco consumption less attractive, and thus to discourage young people from starting to smoke". The document foresees measures on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products that include cigarettes, and bans also oral tobacco. The new directive extends its scope to include electronic cigarettes, cross-border distance sales and products bought via the internet, which the rules set out in the previous directive dating back to 11 years ago. Health warning messages also have to appear on tobacco products. Investments on highly renewable energy sources Showing the energetic and economic value of energy sources is the purpose of a project to which the EU Commission assigned 1.2 million euro, financing 23 "highly innovative renewable energy sources". Projects will be co-financed with revenues obtained from the sale of 200 million emission allowances from the new entrants’ reserve (NER) of the EU Emissions Trading System". The projects, under the first call for proposals for the so-called NER300 funding programme, was launched across several Member States, which cover a wide range of renewable technologies – bioenergy (including advanced biofuels), concentrated solar power, geothermal power, wind, ocean energy and distributed renewable management (smart grids). Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said: "The NER300 programme is in effect a ‘Robin Hood’ mechanism that makes polluters pay for large-scale demonstration of new low-carbon technologies. The 1.2 billion of grants – paid by the polluters – will leverage a further 2 billion of private investment in the 23 selected low-carbon demonstration projects". The grants will leverage a further 2 billion of private investment. This will help the EU keep its frontrunner position on renewables and create jobs here and now, in the EU". Priorities for digital agenda review European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes believes that "2013 will be the busiest year yet for the Digital Agenda". On behalf of the Executive the Commissioner proposed on December 18 a programme with seven new priorities, as "the digital economy is growing at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy, but this potential is currently held back by a patchy pan-European policy framework". Priorities include a "new broadband regulatory environment", an EU cyber-security strategy and Directive, Grand Coalition on Digital Skills and Jobs, and update of the EU’s Copyright Framework.
