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Member States should face strict fines and sanctions if they fail to meet national reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions from sources that are not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System - e.g. road and sea transport, buildings, services, and farming - says the EP Environment Committee.

Banks should urgently be relieved of the unnecessary duty to revalue their loan portfolios according to the criteria of which price they could achieve if they sell the credit today.

Common principles for levying charges at Community airports are set out in a second-reading report, adopted by the Transport Committee on Tuesday, on a proposed directive to prevent individual airports abusing a dominant position on the market. MEPs want the rules to apply to airports with an annual throughput of over 5 million passengers per year, whereas the Commission had proposed one million.

In a changing market, it remains essential for the roll-out of pay-TV services that conditional-access systems be protected at European level against piracy. This is the verdict of a report published by the European Commission. Such protection is also a vital precondition for the growth of new content distribution services like video on demand, online products and mobile TV. To boost the effectiveness of the European Directive providing this protection, the Commission is setting up a group in which government experts can exchange information and good practice, and proposes that the EU ratify the Council of Europe’s European Convention on the Legal Protection of Services based on, or consisting of, Conditional Access.

In August 2008 the majority of average MFI interest rates on new deposits and new loans were either basically unchanged or higher than in the previous month.

The EU must cooperate with the Irish government to address people's concerns and find a suitable way forward for institutional reform. So said MEPs in a lively Constitutional Affairs Committee debate with Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin on Monday, on the reasons for Ireland's referendum rejection of the draft Lisbon reform treaty.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told MEPs on Monday that an EU-wide response to the banking crisis would be preferable to unilateral action. Competition rules were part of the solution rather than an obstacle to it, she argued.

In 2007, the total GDP in the 27 states of the European Union grew to nearly USD 17 trillion. It is now the world's largest economy and its largest single economic area. The European Attractiveness Scoreboard (EAS) features data showing how Europe positions itself as an investment location in comparison to other major locations such as the United States, Japan, China, and India.

UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers’ organisation, welcomed the outcomes of the “mini-summit” on the current economic and financial crisis between the EU members of the G8, the European Commission and the Eurogroup that took place in Paris on Saturday.

Transparency International welcomes the European Union's new system for disclosing the beneficiaries of its funds. The European Commission recently launched several web portals through which information on the recipients of certain EU funds can be accessed. TI calls on EU Member States and the Commission to further enhance the information provided for and published through the disclosure system.