EU: enterprises and public administration Inefficient public administration “remains one of the main obstacles to industrial competitiveness and economic growth”. For this reason “the Commission has made public administration reform one of its top five economic priorities”. The issue was addressed on October 29 by European policymakers, experts, public administration officers and local bodies at a high-level conference in Brussels “to spur a debate on how public administrations across Europe can become more efficient and transparent”. The conference, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and EU commissioners discussed about how to make administrations across Europe “more business-friendly”, overcoming the stumbling blocks. The preparatory work of the Commission showed that in Europe “there are profound structural unbalances”, while the “productivity gap is large, with Countries burdened by “cumbersome tax procedures, limited innovation capactities, high energy costs, poor infrastructural systems”. Moreover, “in many Member States, inefficient public administration remains one of the main obstacles to industrial competitiveness and economic growth”. During the meeting participants addressed the problems hindering the relations between central and peripheral administration and enterprises, highlighting achievements and examples of good practices in some Member States. For example, to fully exploit the benefits of e-government, Denmark and the United Kingdom have taken steps towards making “online” the default channel for certain services; to increase the level of predictability and legal certainty, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom have implemented a system in which all new amended regulations come into force on a limited number of pre-defined dates each year; to reduce the number of new regulations for businesses, the government in the United Kingdom has operated a “one-in, two-out” rule since January 2013 i.e. every new regulation that imposes a new quantifiable burden on firms must be offset by removing or modifying an existing regulation to double the savings, while in 2012, Spain launched an express licence regime for retail outlets. “Charlemagne prize”, Europe under-30 “To foster understanding between people from different European countries and encourage their participation in projects for European integration” is the purpose of the Charlemagne Youth Prize, organised jointly by the European Parliament and the International Charlemagne Prize Foundation in Aachen (Germany). Registration for the 2014 edition are open, the prize is awarded each year for projects run by people aged between 16 and 30 that “provide models for young people living in Europe and offer practical examples of Europeans living together as one community”. The three winning projects are granted “international recognition” (the awarding ceremony in Aachen, and its representatives are invited to the European Parliament in Strasbourg), along with 5,000, 3,000, and 2,000 respectively. 2013 winners were “Europe on track”, a Spanish youth media project; “Discover Europe”, a Polish photo context and the Estonian youth exchange project “The Story of my Life”. Further information and registration at: http://www.charlemagneyouthprize.eu. Young translators: competition for schools “An excellent way to promote language learning and professional opportunities related to translation “, given that “language skills are an important wealth: they broaden the mind and increase employability”. On October 28 EU Commissioner for Education and Youth Androulla Vassiliou, presented a list of 720 schools in EU countries taking part in the context “Juvenes Translatores”, November 28. The competition, open to secondary school students (pupils born in 1996), consists in a test that takes place simultaneously in selected schools across Member States: “Over 3 thousand students will test their language skills, just like a professional translator” by translating a text from one of the 24 official languages of the EU to one of the remaining 23 languages. Participating schools are listed on http://ec.europa.eu/translatores.
