Asylum and refugees: 76 thousand granted recognitionDuring 2008 EU Member States granted protection to 76,300 asylum seekers. According to a Eurostat survey, “The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status 1 in the EU27 were citizens of Iraq (16 600 persons or 22% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Somalia (9 500 or 12%), Russia (7 400 or 10%), Afghanistan and Eritrea”. The statistical office of the European communities made known that in 2008, 281 100 decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU27 of which 209 200 were first instance decisions and the remaining were final decisions on appeal. “The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 28% in the first instance and 24% for final decisions”. Eurostat refers of the situation according to the three kind of protection offered at European level: “40 000 persons were granted refugee status, 25 500 subsidiary protection and 10 800 granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons”. Two thirds of all grants of protection status in the EU27 were registered in France (over 11 thousand), Germany and the United Kingdom (over 10thousand), Italy (9,700), Sweden (8,700); high figures were also recorded in The Netherlands and in Austria. Economy: aid against the crisis and for recovery Strong increase of State aid to in response to the consequences of the ongoing recession on the economy, employment and European society. The Commission’s latest State Aid Scoreboard, issued a few days ago, “shows the financial crisis multiplied the overall aid volume from 66.5 billion or 0.52% of the EU-27 GDP in 2007 to 279.6 billion or 2.2% of GDP in 2008”. EU and national “Crisis measures” excluded, total aid stood in 2008 at 67.4 billion or 0.54% of GDP. “In the past 14 months, unprecedented rescue measures allowed Europe to stabilise financial markets and help to pave the road to recovery”, commented Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “By vetting this aid quickly, and strictly controlling its use, we have ensured state aid is part of the solution to the crisis”. Commissioner Kroes underlined that problems are still unsolved: “We have now entered the restructuring phase for the banking system with first important decisions already taken – for example on KBC, ING, Lloyds, Fortis and Commerzbank”. “I very much welcome that Member States, despite the difficult times, maintained state aid discipline and continued their efforts to re-direct aid for horizontal objectives of common interest such as research”. Eurostat survey on Internet access and use Internet access increases across Europe. In the EU27 , 65% of households 1 had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008, and 56% had a broadband internet connection in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008. These are the findings of a Eurostat survey on information technology and communication in the EU27 Member States, the candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey, Macedonia), Norway , Iceland and Serbia. According to the EU statistics bureau the proportion of households with internet access was three quarters or more in the Netherlands (90%), Luxembourg (87%), Sweden (86%), Denmark (83%), Germany (79%), Finland (78%) and the United Kingdom (77%). The lowest shares were registered in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia. Broadband connection is highest in Northern and Central Europe.Universities: the European translation networkUniversities across Europe providing translator training programmes get together. The “European Master’s in Translation ” (EMT) network held its constitution meeting in Brussels on 8 and 9 December to establish the network’s governance structure. In September last, 34 Master’s level translation programmes from universities all over Europe were selected. “With the EMT network, a quality label for translation programmes at Master’s level is born. This will pave the way for high-quality education for translation students, broadening their professional horizons while nurturing competent workforce even for public institutions”, panelists said during the meeting. “Translation is a job with a future. At the same time, it is a job in constant evolution involving subtitling, localising, editing, web editing etc. It may also entail other than purely translation-related competences, such as project management and negotiation with clients, to name just a few”, said Leonard Orban, Commissioner for Multilingualism.
